Wild Bunch Leeches of Lore to Hit Cobra Lounge Saturday Night
By Casey Moffitt in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 18, 2014 7:30PM
photo courtesy of Leeches of Lore
Where to start when talking about Leeches of Lore? The most obvious is the fact that this unusual power trio hails from that hotbed of entertainment known as Albuquerque and, although it sounds like a disaster on paper, this band is actually a lot of fun to see in concert.
As we describe the music Leeches of Lore has released, you'll quickly understand why it sounds like it shouldn't work. There is no sense in trying to pigeonhole this band into a nice label that everyone will get in an instant. It is rock music but it has elements of punk, thrash, country, blues and metal. There's even more than a passing hint of Ennio Morricone, that is if he scored movies about motorcycle gangs instead of movies about Italian cowboys.
Finding a genre-hopping act in and of itself isn't all that unusual, but more often than not when a band delves into such a variety of musical forms it sounds as if they're hitting the highway with a bad clutch. They'll have a tendency to take you in one one groove only to hit the breaks and clumsily maneuver into the next phase of the song. Leeches, however, have largely managed to avoid that trap. The have enough sense to gradually change tempo or dynamics to make the shifts more smooth and make easy for the listener to keep up. They maintain a certain continuity throughout each song.
What's really cool is how Leeches of Lore can hit all these notes in a mad dash of a three or four minute song. They do have a few sweeping epics of the eight to 10 minute range, but for the most part Leeches keep things pretty concise. It's a pretty neat trick.
Adding to this weirdness is the instrumentation employed by the band: electric guitar; drums; and electric piano. The electric piano adds a kind of Deep Purple element to the whole vibe and another layer of intrigue. It is both amusing and fascinating to see thrash bass rhythms being pounded out on an electric piano.
This all makes for a show that is hard to forget. You might not walk out humming their songs to yourself, but it is hard to ignore what has been witnessed. It's more likely you'll leave asking, "What was that and how can I find out more about it?"
Leeches of Lore will be playing at Cobra Lounge Saturday night for wild night of rock'n'roll. Locals Black Actress and Bible of the Devil (who claim to be performing their 700th show) will take the stage as well. United Teachers of Music—which features members of 20 Dollar Love, Witchden, New Labor/Amish Armada, Skullcranes and Drug Budget—rounds out the bill.
Leeches of Lore perform at Cobra Lounge, 235 N. Ashland Ave., at 9 p.m. Saturday night. $12. 21 and older.