Review: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club w/ special guests the Cobbs @ Culture Room
Listen, I'm no fan of leather. I don't like it in jacket or pants form. Lucky for me, a sweet leather outfit was one of the few rock cliché not employed by the filthy boys in Black Rebel Motorcycle Club this Saturday. They did, however, writhe with their guitars, dry humping every mic stand in sight, liberally supplying the crowd with a healthy dose of anguished yet pouty-lipped glances and monstrous licks driven by volume to a behemoth’s size. This was done despite the Culture Room's notoriously horrible sound and it's annoyingly high and distant stage; not an easy task.
Black Rebel mounted the boards around 10:30 against a dark stage and a loop from The Doors movie (it's from the part where they're in the desert on peyote playing hippie drums and chanting about, you guessed it, a black-clad rebel, who I imagine might also be a member of an auto club). Armed with too many guitars each, a pair of industrial sized strobe lights, and a wife-beater wearing additional guitarist to fill in the aural gaps, they kicked out the jams for what seemed like forever. The audience, comprised mostly of the rockinest/ugliest teenagers West Broward County has to offer, was enthralled by the sleazy energy thrust upon them by the pulsing crotches of BRMC. The amps were at 11, the light show was shamelessly psychedelic, and it pretty much carried on like this for about an hour.
After the show, as the kids ran to the merch booth to spend lunch money on overpriced T-shirts, I, an old man was left to ponder the authenticity of such unabashedly effortless and banal music. I could've stayed at home and listened to Electric Warrior, or tracked down the Jesus And Mary Chain tour video someone borrowed years ago and never returned to me. But when I saw the smiles on the sweaty faces of those kids as they drove off in their dad's Prius, a soft spot in my heart opened up for the BR's. They’re just trying to rock, and that's ok with me -- even if a real black rebel motorcyclist could kick their asses.
If you are interested in following BRMC as they tour North America, check out their Filter Magazine Tour Zine.
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Photography by Santiago Felipe at Camera Obscura Photography.
