Swervedriver & Heaven toured played Bowery Ballroom (pics)

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

Swervedriver @ Bowery Ballroom

“…Simply put, from the first note of opening stunner “Last Train to Satansville” (from 1993’s Mezcal Head), Swervedriver dominated. A sonic tour de force dominated by vocalist/guitarist Adam Franklin and tour fill-in drummer Mikey Jones (who did a TREMENDOUS job filling in for Graham Bonnar, who played with them last year but couldn’t play on this tour) and augmented nicely by guitarist Jimmy Hartridge and bassist Steve George, most of this show saw Swervedriver stick to the raw, guttural, heavy punch of its first two Lps (1991’s Raise and the aforementioned Mezcal Head). In addition to absolutely smashing versions of Raise-era singles like “Sandblasted,” “Son of Mustang Ford” and Rave Down”, we also got deep cuts like “Deep Seat,” “Pile Up” and even the B-side “Scrawl and Scream”. Mezcal Head was represented by a pile-driving version of “Never Lose That Feeling” along with “Girl on a Motorbike” (the first song played in the encore) and set closer “Duel”. There were only several songs played from later albums (the best of which was a stunning version of Ejector Seat Reservation’s “Son of Jaguar E”) and “The Birds” (the finest song in their catalog, at least in this writer’s estimation) didn’t work quite as well as some of the other, earlier, fiercer material…” [The Big Takeover]

Swervedriver and Heaven have now completed their short tour that brought them to Bowery Ballroom on 3/31. Here are some pictures from that NYC show. More of them (including the headliner’s setlist), below…

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Heaven

Swervedriver