[ATTENDED: October 7, 2019] Death Valley Girls [rescheduled from June 1 & August 14, replaced Starcrawler]
I had the opportunity to see Death Valley Girls twice in August. The first time was with The Distillers who had to cancel their second show at Union Transfer due to a different injury. The second (and it probably happened because of that cancellation) was with Sharkmuffin, a band I really wanted to see but wasn’t free that night.
So I was pleased that they were opening for The Distillers again a few months down the line.
I actually didn’t know much about them before seeing the show. I had an idea of what they sounded like but, for instance, I had no idea that they were founded by Patty Schemel, the original drummer for Hole. I also had no idea that there was a man in the band (Larry Schemel–Patty’s brother). Patty Schemel has since left, replaced by Laura Kelsey.
So what exactly do the Death Valley Girls sound like?
Well, they’re sort of a fuzzy rock band with goth leanings. The goth leaning come primarily from their look and their lyrics–not their sound.
When they came out on stage, lead singer Bonnie Bloomgarden (what a name!) was wearing a lovely long white dress and with her dark hair, she certainly looked like goth bride.
Before the band started playing, Bonnie and bassist Rachel Orosco posed for pictures in front of the drum set (taken by Kelsey). They stayed in that pose for a while–presumably summoning the forces of darkness–and then they turned around and started rocking. They began with a long fuzzy tone that built and built until the drums started thumping to begin “Abre Camino.” It was a cool, dramatic, way to start the show.
Unfortunately, Larry was blocked for me by a very tall man, so I didn’t even really notice that he was making all of the great guitar noises that were echoing around. In fact Larry’s guitar work was outstanding–all kinds of noises and squeals that worked perfectly with the music.
They played another song from their 2018 album Darkness Rains called “Street Justice.” The songs were simple but they packed a great punch and Bloomgarden’s voice (often combined with Orosco’s vocals) were gritty and cool.
For “More Dead” Bloomgarden played the keyboard. The keys (in a kind of old-school organ style) added a new somewhat spooky dimension to their sound.
After a few songs, Bloomgarden spoke to us. I was surprised that such a loud singing voice would come from someone with such an adorable speaking voice. With no disrespect intended, she could certainly parley her speaking voice into a cartoon character franchise.
She told us that this was their first night with The Distillers (I didn’t realize that) and they were super excited to watch them.
They followed up those three songs by going back to their previous album for a bunch of songs. The first was “Death Valley Boogie.” This song was fast and fun and it was great to see Bloomgarden and Orosco enjoying themselves when singing at the same mic.
The older songs used a lot more keyboard and I found them a little less exciting overall. I think their newer songs are a bit noisier. Laura sang lead vocals on “Disco” with Bonnie adding harmony vocals.
“Pink Radiation” was the one song I didn’t like. It was quite slow and quite long (5 minutes on record). And it didn’t really do all that much–repeating the same verse over and over. I grew a little tired during this song, but they won me back over with “I’m a Man Too” which Bloomgarden introduced by saying something like: we defy anyone to tell us who is and who is not a man.
They returned to the newer album for “Wear Black” which features more great guitars form Schemel and keys from Bloomgarden.
The crowd was really into it by this point with the very tall man behind me shouting “You guys fucking rock!”
I was sure that “Disaster (Is What We’re After” was their last song because as the song hit the midpoint, Bloomgarden jumped off the stage and ran around in the area between the fence and the stage. She also hugged a few fans which was really incredibly sweet. This song had such a solid classic heavy metal sounding riff and they were able to jam it out while Bonnie was on the floor.
The stage lights turned white and I assumed they were done, but they started the last song, “Electric High.” This was their first single and it was fast and intense and had some great lighting effects. Bloomgarden and Orosco were singing together again and, as happened a lot with this band, there were some awesome photo ops, like the one on the left. In fact, by the end of the set, Bloomgarden and Orosco were both playing on their knees with the lights strobing intensely.
It was a spectacular ending to a great show.
I now really wish I had seen them in the Asbury Park’s tiny The Saint–although they probably wouldn’t have had that light show!
SETLIST
- Abre Camino ♠
- Street Justice ♠
- More Dead ♠
- Death Valley Boogie ⊗
- Disco ⊗
- Pink Radiation ⊗
- I’m a Man Too ⊗
- Wear Black ♠
- Disaster (Is What We’re After) ♠
- Electric High [2014 single]
♠ Darkness Rains (2018)
⊗ Glow in the Dark (2016)
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