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By suzy Sabla Photos by sprout

After partying on Friday and Saturday, the Dead Meadow show on Sunday night was a nice and mellow alternative for any Vancouver socialite still riding on the weekend. The D.C. three-piece is currently on a North American tour promoting their fifth studio album, Old Growth.
Vancouver greeted the band, a fairly large crowd filling the Richards on Richards dance floor. The stage was covered with gear to help intensify the musical stampede ahead, just as the red and blue lights and liquid light projector were ready to heighten the entrancing spirit of the music; a blend of heavy 70’s rock sounds and hypnotic 60’s psych.
Jason Simon (guitar and vocals), Steve Kille (bass), and Stephen McCarty (drums), were able to immerse the crowd in their almost two-hour long set of psychedelic drone. Sabbath-like drum beats alongside guitar and bass jams were impressive. Unfortunately, however, Simon’s vocals were often drowned-out by instrumentation.
Although Dead Meadow have attained popularity, having toured with bands like The Brian Jonestown Massacre, one not familiar with the group might reference their sound to more mainstream Californians, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
Dead Meadow are definitely more experimental, songs often breaking from a traditional verse, chorus, verse, bridge pattern. Their improvisational skills succeeded when Simon broke a string, leaving Kille and McCarty to entertain the crowd for minutes, Simon eventually joining in on the jam. Kille has a charm to him, his body movement sporadic – countering the placid sounds of the spacey music. McCarty’s drumming is commendable, as he demonstrated himself as skilled musician rather than a hokey exhibitionist with complex drum solos.
Instrumental surprises aside, the band managed to hold onto a unified sound throughout the set. Each song blended into the next, and this is not meant as a negative critique. Much like a perfectly flowing record, each sound smoothly morphed into another. It was not hard to zone out, especially among the second-hand pot smoke of a “psychedelic” crowd.
The swarm of listeners was a mix of twenty-somethings in tight pants and brimmed hats, kids you can only assume listen to Zeppelin in their college dorm rooms a little too often, and the token drunk girl trying to make out with her boyfriend as he was entranced by something other than her.
As far as the set goes, Dead Meadow played a good show in terms of what the fans wanted to hear. Whilst promoting their slightly disappointing new album, the crowd was pleased the band played songs like, Greensky Greenlake, and What Needs Must Be, from their favoured album, the 2005 release, Feathers.
I was all partied out last weekend, but this show was no weigh down. I went to sleep that night while the resonating reverb was a lullaby for my ears and I closed my eyes only to see images of paisleys and acid floral in the darkness.

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