Murder By Death – Live (April 26th, 2009)

It’s hard to debate the fact that Murder by Death looked out of place at the Starlite Room last night. 

Standing on a stage that sits around four feet off the ground surrounded by brightly painted walls doesn’t necessarily convey the emotion that the Bloomington, Indiana quartet is trying to make. Their grimy, dirty, bar rock music would be better suited for a dirty, crammed, dark and grimy bar where they would be forced to play face to face to their fans instead of standing above them.

When I hear Murder by Death that – in a sense – is what I picture. With lyrics that portray tales of lust, betrayal, death and the Satan sang by vocals that pull as much from Tom Waits as they do from Johnny Cash, Murder by Death are not your happy go-lucky band. That made it all the more striking to see that front man Adam Turla was in a humorous mood as he constantly joked with the crowd between songs. Whether he was quickly inventing a country song about kicking over his glass of whiskey, mocking the idea of encores (despite doing two) or poking fun at Nelly for playing the same song twice in a 22-minute set, Turla was surprisingly high spirited considering the songs he was singing for the crowd. 

Opening up with Ball and Chain and ’52 Ford from Red of Tooth and Claw, the band picked songs from most of their catalogue (including the fan favourite Until Morale Improves, the Beatings Will Continue) but kept a heavy emphasis on In Bocca Al Lupo. After playing tracks like Dynamite Mine, Sometimes The Line Walks you, One More Notch, Brother and Shiola and Boy Decide for the first encore, they covered almost half of the tracks from the album. 

Turla’s vocals carried the same grit as they do on the albums but weren’t nearly as audible and sometimes got lost in the mix of instruments. That quickly became the main issue of the night as the vocals needed to be much higher in the mix – something that the Starlite Room messed up on during the Senses Fail show two weeks ago too. 

Despite the hiccup, Murder by Death were still able to captivate the audience, mainly due to Sarah Balliet’s stage presence. Even while sitting down, the classically trained cellist swayed with the music and melody of her instrument and attacked the keyboard when needed. There was a fluid motion in her movements as she plucked the strings of the uniquely shaped bow instrument that just made the sound so much more distinct and appealing.

Even though there were times where Murder by Death were missing that grimy sensation that all their records have – be it from the muffled vocals or the taller stage setup; their first headlining show in Edmonton could still be easily considered a success.