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The Distillers at Varsity Theater
Tour Dates
10.15.19 – Houston, TX, White Oak Music Hall 10.16.19 – Austin, TX, Emo’s 10.17.19 – Dallas, TX, Granada Theater 10.19.19 – Denver, CO, Ogden Theatre 10.20.19 – Salt Lake City, UT, The Union Event Center 10.22.19 – San Francisco, CA, Warfield Theater 10.23.19 – Santa Cruz, CA, The Catalyst 10.24.19 – Ventura, CA, Majestic Ventura Theater Read More
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When I turned 20, I was as Britney (and Dido) said, “Not a girl, not yet a woman.” I was, however, a serious music fanatic, feverishly listening to anything I could get my ears on. I was also a frustrated college sophomore at a small garbage school in nowheresville Wisconsin. My desire was for something, anything really, that didn’t reflect my conservative football-centered surroundings and spoke to my burgeoning rebel soul. Something brash, angry and unapologetically female. At this point, Courtney Love had all but abandoned music to pursue movies and Oxycontin. I loved Patti Smith but craved someone more modern. I was on the path to discovering PJ Harvey and Sleater-Kinney and a few years out from other rock and roll heroes who weren't cishet white men. I wanted angst and passion and blood. Enter: Brody Dalle. Dalle shredded her guitar, screamed like a holy terror and wrote songs with brutal imagery, guillotine blades and chests bursting open revealing oozing, weeping hearts. I. Was. Hooked. Brody and the Distillers became the glue as I pieced together my awkward adult self and cemented the very important Ride-Or-Die female friendships that would see me through my 20s.
The Distillers went through some growing pains themselves. Just 3 years after their breakout album 2003’s Coral Fang, which saw a reluctant Dalle claim the Hot Topic crown and enter a bigger arena of fame, the group disbanded. Rigorous touring, the music industry, and inter-personal struggles took its toll on the four members. Drummer Andy Granelli went on to play in Darker My Love, bassist Ryan Sinn joined Angels and Airwaves and guitarist Tony Bevilacqua and Dalle formed the short-lived but excellent project Spinerette, with rock veterans Jack Irons and Alain Johannes. Dalle also released her first solo album Diploid Love in 2014.
In early 2018, Dalle started teasing some recent photos of herself and the band and unveiled a video on social media, confirming the Distillers were back from the dead. The Coral Fang line-up announced their first reunion show in late 2018 and released the singles “Man vs. Magnet” and “Blood in Gutters.”
Which brings us to now: 13 years after their last Twin Cities show (was I there? Was it at the Quest with Queens of the Stone Age and Millionaire? Cuz that show was bonkers) a very enthusiastic Varsity theater crowd welcomed the Distillers back to the frost-bitten streets of Minneapolis. They brought along bad-ass stoner rockers Death Valley Girls and that mysterious Mojave-desert-cool that follows that quartet wherever it goes busted through an initially icy reception. Bonnie Bloomgarden and company bring the heavy Black Sabbath-y riffs and chugging Cramps vibe, but also a serious dose of charm. Bloomgarden was delightful and hilarious, telling the audience that we made “the right decision” by spending our Friday night with them and then applauding our decision. I wish everyone was as supportive!
The Distillers took the stage to the triumphant swell of Edith Piaf’s “No Regrets” and amidst flashes of colored lights and an outpouring of adoration, dove into their 20+ years catalogue. To be honest, this was the first show in a very long time where I knew EVERY SONG and *almost* ALL THE LYRICS. These are tried-and-true anthems about being young and confused and looking to music for salvation and stomping out an identity in spite of the status quo; the opener “Sick of It All” to “Crazed Young Peeling” to sexism-bucking rockers like “Oh Serena” and “Seneca Falls.” My favorite track “Hall of Mirrors” sounds just as sharp and painfully personal as it did when I first spun Coral Fang in my car and “Gypsy Rose Lee,” a stirring love letter to childhood, was especially exciting to hear as it hasn’t been played much since 2004. Other show highlights include the fantastic “For Tonight You’re Only Here To Know” with its urgent siren-like hook and the straight-up singalong that occurred during fan-favorite “The Hunger.” A cover of Frank Black’s “(I Want To Live On An) Abstract Plain” was a wonderful surprise along with their latest single “Man vs. Magnet.”
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Brody Dalle
photo: Emily
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The band was in great shape considering the spate of bad luck that had befallen them in the last year; drummer Granelli (who was sporting a Dead Moon t-shirt) sustained a terrible hand injury in a bike accident that forced them to cancel their August dates and Dalle battled sickness early in their tour. Thankfully Granelli is healed and back to busting the skins and everyone looks healthy! A make-up smeared and very zen Bevilacqua flanked Dalle’s left side while Sinn bounced around on her right. Dalle took time to thank the undulating crowd not once, not twice, but like 5 different times.
But the pleasure is all ours, Brody. To a woman whose music was and has been my salve for many frustrating, humiliating, soul-crushing experiences, my respite from anyone who wanted to keep me small and quiet and complacent... thank you, Brody.
The Distillers at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (11 Oct 2019) |
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