Show Preview: Ty Segall w/ Wand & Flesh Wounds at Motorco Music Hall

Ty Segall performs at Motorco Music Hall
on Sunday, Sept. 14 w/ Wand & Flesh Wounds

It's basically reached the point where the term "garage rock" has become synonymous with Ty Segall for me. With an insane amount of turnover, Segall has been churning out excellent album after excellent album for the past few years now and he's shown little signs of slowing down. Before Manipulator, his most recent release on Drag City, it had been 14 months since we received new music from Segall.

Usually one would balk at the insinuation that 14 months is a long wait between albums, but this is coming from the guy that put out four freakin' records last year, all of them ridiculously impressive. This manic garage savant may have slowed his frighteningly swift pace of production, but his output is just as impressive as always. If not more so frankly. Manipulation is by no means a slow-rolling record, but there's a lot more definition packed into these emotionally dense, high-energy tracks.

Thus, one could expect that Segall will be laying it all on the line this Sunday night at their sold-out Motorco show. The night is filled with brilliant, balls to the wall punk music that will leave this garage-esque venue damp and sweaty from all of the ridiculous attempts at moshing, crowd surfing and any other ridiculously amped crowd reaction you can imagine. Segall leads the crowd's antics like a composer, his heartfelt songs bursting forth from their amplifiers physically effects these concertgoers. It compels you to manically bob your head, smack your hands on your pockets like you'd actually know what the hell you'd be doing behind a drum set, and generally experience some cathartic sense of relief. There's just something about losing your mind at a punk show that leaves you feeling reinvigorated, ready to tackle the dull 9-to-5 that you may be headed to early on Monday morning. That's what makes this show at this seldom visited venue for myself, such an incredible outing.

Since Motorco opened it's been a vastly underutilized venue, but when the big names come through it kind of makes you scratch your head and wonder why the hell this venue hasn't taken off in a huge way. Having Flesh Wounds open the show as well just makes the night even sweeter. In recent months the band has been picking up a lot of steam after a quiet year in 2013, with a 7" release on Merge and some rave reviews from their manic energy at Hopscotch, they'll likely be permeating the frenetic vibes to get concertgoers prepped for their highly anticipated headliner later in the evening. But if Segall doesn't bring his "A" game it could be easy for these openers to steal the show, making it all the more exciting to see exactly how wild this show will truly get.

Check out Segall's recent performance on Conan O'Brien below:

Show Review: King Khan and the Shrines w/ Hellshovel & Black Zinfadel

Hellshovel

As a first time passenger of the Bridge Bus, a bus that runs between Durham and Raleigh at night on the weekends, I wasn’t entirely sure if I would make it to the show. My bus anxieties were dissipated very quickly and I made it to Durham just in time to catch Hellshovel play.

Although I missed Black Zinfandel, I can tell you that they are a band not to be missed even though I did just that...They blend conventional punk stylings with psych-rock recklessness to create a crass, yet refined style. Regardless, Black Zinfandel gives me hope that the punk scene in Raleigh will eventually become much more visible.

When Hellshovel began to play all I could think about is how much better their shoes were than any of the shoes I own. That's actually not all I thought about but these dudes had some good shoes and very mod style that fit well with their rockabilly psych rock that was a lot more jam-band than a typical garage band, but it was refreshing to hear. Hellshovel played mellow garage tunes that still had energy infused into them to keep the crowd going until King Khan hit the stage. 

King Khan and the Shrines

King Khan's specialty lies in his live performances that tend to be over the top and exposed. Literally exposed, as most of the time, he sings in a cape and nothing else but his underwear. Because this is not what immediately happened, I was a bit surprised and maybe even disappointed to see him in a dapper suit, however the show proved to be nothing but a riot.

A moshpit formed very quickly and everyone in it seemed to be convulsing to the soulful sounds the band created. With a live band consisting of eight people, it was surprisingly tame until the encore when Khan finally came out dressed as I would have expected him, commando, with a cape. This show was first of hopefully many shows where I witnessed the span of fifteen to fifty years of age all together in the same moshpit, having a blast. And when an artist can elicit that big of a response from that wide of an array of people, there's obviously something fantastic happening.

Show Preview: King Khan and the Shrines w/ Hellshovel and Black Zinfandel

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  King Khan and the Shrines perform at Motorco
  in Durham, NC on Saturday, Nov. 2.
  Preview by Anastassia Olegovna

  Trying to identify King Khan and the Shrines in a certain genre is nearly impossible. Trying to identify who they even are is almost as difficult, but thanks to the Internet for no longer concealing the identities of anyone, King Khan is Canadian-born Arish Ahmad Khan. King Khan and the Shrines have been around since 1999 and if you’ve never seen them before and know very little about the state of their shows, you might find yourself going through a bit of a religious awakening. The two opening bands for this riotous party of a show, on Nov. 2 at Motorco Music Hall in Durham, are Hellshovel and Black Zinfandel--two bands that fit the bill perfectly. Hellshovel will start you off with a psyched out set of songs that sound like they are underwater. This Montreal band is signed to Slovenly Records, home of garage bands like Paint Fumes, Acid Baby Jesus, and Bazooka. Next is a local gem, Black Zinfandel, a band that is proving to be one of the most essential Raleigh garage bands. Fronted by Brian Cruse, Black Zinfandel has only been around for a short year but has become a favorite of the Triangle garage and punk scene, opening up for well established garage acts and playing a slew of their own headlining shows. Finally King Khan will blow you away into another dimension. Self-described as a “psychedelic soul band with a spectacle of a show”, a King Khan is a spiritual and ritual experience. A tarot-card reading magical guru, Khan has been at this for over ten years and with the release of his new album, “Idle No More”, he is a force of nature who will not stop bring the soul to garage.