Murder By Death ‘10
By: Joe Toeben
Murder By Death are no stranger to the music scene. The quartet from Indiana have been playing together since 2000 and along the way have drank more whiskey than your grandpa. They made a stop in Minnesota at the Triple Rock in Minneapolis while out supporting their newest album Good Morning, Magpie. Along with them they had two bands supporting them, Linfinity and Ha Ha Tonka. Given the names I wasn’t sure what to expect for either of them but I gave it a shot and went to the show in support of Murder By Death. While I did miss a great portion of Linfinity’s set due to a long interview with Murder By Death’s Adam Turla, what I did catch from them was a very cohesive version of indie rock with a lot of fuzz and dead air. They gave off a sort of post rock feel with some alt rock and maybe acid rock aesthetics.
After a short intermission Ha Ha Tonka took the stage and just from the name I think everyone in there was a little skeptical of what the music was going to be like. After my talk with Adam from Murder By Death I learned that Ha Ha Tonka had one hell of a tough time on the road, with their van breaking down numerous time and having to wait 3 weeks to have it fixed at one point. Either way once they took the stage I was pleasantly surprised. Not as country as they had been described, Ha Ha played more of a country rock style that you would get from Drive-By Truckers or Lynyrd Skynyrd. They played a couple very good songs and then did a fantastic cover of “Black Betty” which was popularized a while back by Ram Jam. Their last song involved members of Linfinity and Murder By Death as well bringing the total number of members on the tiny stage up about 15 or so. They then proceeded to jam out and a heavy country rock ditty that was satisfying for every half-drunk fan in the crowd.
Last but not least was Murder By Death, the whiskey indie kings (and queen). Adam had his whiskey filled water bottle handy throughout the first five to six songs until he ran out of booze. They played four songs off the new album and then filled in the rest of the set nicely with songs off of the rest of their 4 albums. Early that evening Adam had mentioned to me during the interview (which is later to follow so look out for it) that when they mix the music and set up for a live show that the cello played by Sarah is always the “lead” guitar and after hearing him say that I could definitely hear the difference. Every song pretty much started out with a cello lead and usually ended with one too. They played all kinds of songs you could drink, dance and laugh to. Easy to say that Murder By Death puts on one of the best all around shows for any kind of music lover out there. Whether you listen to metal, punk, pop, or hip hop it still makes for a great show and a very talented band is the one presenting it for you. The show was great and at a bonus the merch was very affordable too. Make sure to get out and see Murder By Death later this year when they come back around the US for another leg of the Magpie tour.
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/murderbydeath
