There are many different breeds of artists who have spread their musical seed throughout this planet. And it is usually the ones who seem to be from a different planet that dispense the most glorious of seeds. Although sometimes difficult to locate amongst the harvest of record-company-bred "talent" and the onslaught of musical mediocrity that saturate the sound waves, there is the occasional oddity artist that comes along, who seems to have no choice but to create music. Dax Riggs is this oddity artist, right now.
|
| |
Dax Riggs
|
 Entertainment
Art
Subterranean
Chicago, Ill.
November 10, 2007
|
| |
|
|
It is as though he has been here for hundreds of years, after arriving from some other as yet undiscovered planet, and made a pact with the devil. Only this pact granted him with an unexplainable musical genius and he still somehow managed to keep his soul; more soul than you or I will ever know.
I will not go into the masterpieces of Dax's past (that is not the focus here) other than to quickly say the following for those unaware or interested: Acid Bath. Agents of Oblivion. Deadboy and the Elephantmen. Google them, I urge you to listen to and experience ALL albums from ALL of these relatively unknown bands.
It is an otherworldly evolution that leads us to the 2007 release of Dax's latest, We Sing of Only Blood or Love. WSOOBOL is without question the strongest release of artist-dubbed garbage rock yet, and is one of the (writer-dubbed) top three albums of the year.
In addition to the release of WSOOBOL, 2007 has been a musically blissful year for a Dax fan living in Chicago. He has performed here 4 times since June. First at Schuba's, a couple months later at The Empty Bottle, followed by Lollapalooza and now he has come back to Chicago to play the intimate, Subterranean.
Like all of Dax's musical endeavors, his live performances continue to keep getting (somehow) better every time. More soulful, more raw, more of everything great. Yet, seemingly less of everything that can get in the way all at the same time and in turn bridging the gap between minimalism and maximalism (yes, I made that word up). Tonight at Subterranean was no exception.
Playing mostly songs from WSOOBOL (a full list, "Night is the Notion", "Living is Suicide", "Demon Tied to a Chair in My Brain", "Ouroboros", "I Forgot I was Alive", "Radiation Blues", "Didn't Know Yet What I'd Know When I was Bleeding", Truth in the Dark", "Dethbryte", "Wall of Death", "Terrors of Nightlife" and "Ghost Movement"), Dax also sprinkled in a few songs from the Deadboy and the Elephantmen release We are Night Sky (another full list, "How Long the Night Was", "Stop I'm Already Dead", "Evil Friend" and "Blood Music").
As he is somewhat known to do, Dax also tossed in some covers. In addition to "Wall of Death", originally by Richard Thompson, Dax also played "Skulls" by the Misfits and Townes Van Zandt's, "Lungs" (that is to say he played the song "Lungs" by Townes Van Zandt. He didn't play any musical instrument that resembled a lung in any way, shape or form. Especially not the lungs of Townes Van Zandt. That would just be ridiculous!).
Outside of my personal love of Dax's rendition of "Skulls" by the Misfits, there really was no single highlight. And I mean that only in the most complimentary of ways. The entire set can only be described as magical, and could not be enjoyed in any better fashion than in its entirety. Even Dax's band (which varies somewhat performance to performance) could be spotted singing along off-stage while he performed select songs solo. There is just an inescapable passion that radiates from him as he performs, and it haunts and seduces all in its path.
The fact that many of the songs that have made it onto Dax's albums exist in many different pre-recorded and post-recorded forms adds to the already unquantifiable authenticity and uniqueness of each performance. You really never know what version of a song you're going to get (as was the case tonight with, specifically, "I Forgot I was Alive", "Dethbryte" and other more subtle variations interspersed throughout the set).
I've said it already, but it bears repeating. I urge you to get caught up on all of Dax's past and then go buy his current WSOOBOL release, buy all his future releases, and fuck, buy all his merch while you're at it. Definitely catch him live whenever and wherever you can. Do yourself these favors, do so before he leaves Earth and returns to his home planet.
Powered by AkoComment 2.0!
