Zeno's Bar & Grill

Raise your hand if you like Deathcountry or Psychobilly. Okay, then, raise your hand if you even know what they are.

Alright: they're musical genres, who knew? Well, not us. At least not until this weekend, when we caught an Elliott Brood show. Right away, the Samsonite suitcase being used a bass drum won me over.

A lot of the grayhairs in the audience seemed underwhelmed. What no encore? That's practically unheard of in today's live music world, at least locally. I've certainly sat through encores for less deserving artists. I think it said more about the audience's mood than anything else.

So, what does Deathcountry sound like? It's oddly infectious and sort of folky, with supposedly morbid lyrics and themes, although at times that part was hard to tell, aside from what the band members would explain about each song. Overall, the mood was upbeat. The suitcase/drum provided some moments of levity, as it tended to want to escape from its luggage strap. Fortunately, the theater had provided a sand bag as a backup, so all was well.

I was glad I had learned a little about the band before the evening started, because we might have been tempted to skip the whole thing altogether since there was something else fun to do. Earlier in the evening, we attended an art opening at a friend's gallery, for John Patrick Salisbury, whose gorgeous, multi-layered, gigantic paintings were breathtaking. The show looked beautiful and the reception was so much fun that I'm not sure we could have torn ourselves away if it hadn't been for the question of what on earth Deathcountry music was going to look and sound like.

--Melanie