Memento: A Spellbinding Set List From Bewitcher

Posted in Concert Reviews, Features, Mementos, Reviews with tags , , , , , on 07/04/2022 by Kurt Orzeck
Bewitcher’s frontman, Unholy Weaver of Shadows & Incantations

Bewitcher, Portland’s most scintillating speed-metal band since Toxic Holocaust, blew the garage doors off the Shredder in Boise once again on Friday night. It was an exhilarating set played by the band that played the same venue with Nile in mid-April, and with Exhumed and Creeping Death in November 2021.

The 50-or-so attendees danced and rubbed knocked elbows during each song, before and after which Bewitcher’s gracious frontman — who goes by the tough-to-memorize moniker Unholy Weaver of Shadows & Incantations — frequently expressed his appreciation for the crowd.

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Yakov Smirnoff Was Right

Posted in Comedy, Videos with tags on 07/03/2022 by Kurt Orzeck

Brain Tourniquet Turn Minds Into Mush at 1st PacWest Gig

Posted in Concert Reviews, Reviews with tags , on 07/01/2022 by Kurt Orzeck
Brain Tourniquet

The phrase “time is of the essence” originated during the construction of the first Transcontinental Railroad that connected rail networks in the eastern U.S. with the western half of the country. Time is also the essence of live performances by Brain Tourniquet, a D.C. band that is powerfully violent to the hardest of cores.

On Friday night, the trio played their first gig in the Pacific Northwest at Boise’s haven for hard and heavy music, the Shredder. In the spirit of Brain Tourniquet’s speedy set — during which they played about 20 songs in 20 minutes — what follows is a rapid-fire attempt to communicate what it’s like seeing them live.

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Exclusive: Cloak Finish Recording ‘Faster, Harder’ Third LP; Debut New Song Live

Posted in Exclusives, Interviews with tags , on 06/30/2022 by Kurt Orzeck
Cloak

Summer generally leads to an absence of black in Boise. Black clothes are stowed away in closets. Black cars stay parked in garages. Even the black of night lasts fewer than eight hours. But tonight, two of the most hottest heavy-metal bands currently on tour in the U.S. — Cloak and Bewitcher — will paint the city black. Their co-headlining gig at underground venue the Shredder on Friday night is poised to be the most potent metal concert in Boise for the next two months.

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Boise’s Summer Concert Lineup: Bad Penny’s List

Posted in Lists on 06/30/2022 by Kurt Orzeck
Ween

7.1: Cloak, Bewitcher, Brain Tourniquet, Hummingbird of Death at Shredder
7.2: Badflower, Royal Bliss at Expo Idaho Grandstands
7.5: Ween at Outlaw Field
7.6: Caleb Nichols, Strange Pilgrim at Neurolux
7.6: Suffers, McKenna Esteb at Grove Plaza (free)
7.9: Floater at Knitting Factory

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Spirit Mother, Lovers of Heavy Psych and Sardines, Canned Wait to Play Boise Tonight

Posted in Interviews with tags , , , , on 06/09/2022 by Kurt Orzeck
Spirit Mother

What’s that you smell? Whiffs of psychedelic rock and roll wafting through Boise after Patton Oswalt and “Weird” Al Yankovic unloaded their scatological, puerile, yet admittedly golden nuggets of humor at the Morrison Center last Saturday and Monday? Indeed, it’s true: This evening, the Neurolux Lounge is clearing the air with three of the finest heavy-psych posses that the Pacific Northwest has to offer: Blackwater Holylight and Spirit Mother, from our dear Oregonian neighbors to the West; along with Boise’s very own, beloved Ealdor Bealu.

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The 3 Best Podcasts on the Internet in 2022

Posted in Comedy, Lists on 06/04/2022 by Kurt Orzeck
Mailin’ It!: The Official Podcast of the USPS

1. “Mailin’ It!“: “A lighthearted look into the history, innovation, and inner workings of the United States Postal Service.” Recommended episode: “Stamps, an American Obsession

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Exclusive: Monster Magnet Drop Off Psycho Fest 2022; Satyricon’s Status Unknown

Posted in Exclusives with tags , , , , , on 06/03/2022 by Kurt Orzeck
Monster Magnet

Since relocating from the City of Angels to Sin City in 2016, Psycho Las Vegas continues to be the premier crossover music festival in the U.S., attracting heavy-rock bands, indie-pop luminaries, punk legends, rap royalty and even a few DJs for good measure. Levitate and Oblivion Access (both held in Austin) are close behind Psycho but aren’t yet running the asylum, so to speak.

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Unto Others Hit Boise With a Bang (and Bangs)

Posted in Concert Reviews, Reviews with tags , , , , , , , on 05/12/2022 by Kurt Orzeck
Gabriel Franco of Unto Others at the Shredder in Boise on 5.8.22

It’s been a decade or three too long since mobs of miscreants banged their heads to metal mavens wearing bangs. That’s aside from Dave Mustaine and Joey Belladonna — who, at 60 and 61 years old, respectively, really should move aside. C’mon, guys, let the young ones get their chance.

But on Sunday night at the Shredder, Boise got some fresh air and fresh hair in the form of throwback ‘80s hard rockers Unto Others, a newish quartet from Portland, Oregon, led by frontman Gabriel Franco. Breathing new life into a cauldron of ‘80s hard rock, his group originally spawned in 2017 as Idle Hands. Shortly thereafter, they changed their name to another Biblically referenced moniker, Unto Others.

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Exclusive: Orchestra Gold Returning to Boise for Great Garden Escape

Posted in Exclusives, Interviews with tags , , , on 05/10/2022 by Kurt Orzeck
Erich Huffaker and Mariam Diakité of Orchestra Gold

African psychedelic-rock combo and Treefort Festival 2021 participants Orchestra Gold are coming back to Boise next month for a plum gig at the Idaho Botanical Garden’s Great Garden Escape series, the Bad Penny exclusively announces today. The concert will take place June 30 at the Meditation Garden, as part of a lineup that also includes Afrosonics and Hillfolk Noir.

Led by Malian singer and dancer Mariam Diakité and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Erich Huffaker, the Oakland-based Orchestra Gold channel old-school folkloric music from Mali. More specifically, the band describes its sound “horn-driven rhythmic ‘orchestra’ music from ’70s-era Mali, West Africa, with a contemporary twist: analog psych-rock fused with Malian folklore.”

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