Roky Erickson lumbered on stage Monday at D.C.’s Rock n Roll Hotel as his young backup band, led by his son, were already playing an odd variant of “Bo Diddley.”Erickson may not be as pioneering a figure as Diddley, but he is nearly as storied in some circles: A member of the Texan garage band the 13th Floor Elevators, which issued the precient and rocking “You’re Gonna Miss Me” before he dropped out in a haze of drugs, mental hospitals and electroshock therapy.
Erickson was a tough bird: He emerged with t e ability to come up with simple, driving, memorable songs that could ring with the classics. Like Brian Wilson, Peter Green or other rockers whose genius has taken a toll on their live performance skills, he doesn’t have the ability to banter easily or at all with the modest but enthusiastic audience in D.C. He’s tuning or noodling away on his guitar after each brute anthem comes to an end.
The voice always had an urgent rasp, at 65 it’s more of an approaching croak. As with Dylan, this gives some songs more texture. But it was a lousy sound system; at first he was tough to discern over the lumbering of the six piece backing band. Things improved as the night went on though — the voice strengthened as the sound system got better balanced.
(The lights never got better though. Like 80s period Dylan, he was lit only from the back, with red lights that made it look like they were on a warming tray all night. The only time you got a glimpse at his careworn bearded face is when a flash went off in the crowd. This was a legend — that happened pretty often).
(The lights never got better though. Like 80s period Dylan, he was lit only from the back, with red lights that made it look like they were on a warming tray all night. The only time you got a glimpse at his careworn bearded face is when a flash went off in the crowd. This was a legend — that happened pretty often).
And those songs! It was a purely catholic collection of favorites from all ages – the 13th Floor Elevators’ “You’re Gonna Miss Me” but also such 30 year old nuggets as “Don’t Slander Me,” “Bermuda” with newer stuff like “Goodbye Sweet Dreams,” the best ballad from his 2010 collaboration with Okkervil River, “True Love Cast Out All Evil.”
His career-long flirtation with sci fi themes that couldn’t be more contemporary from “Night of the Vampire” to “I Walked with a Zombie.” They could practically be movie titles down at the cineplex. If that’s true, maybe we should make room for the two-headed canines as well as in his show ending “Two Headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer).”
Erickson might have been aided by a better band; certainly one half the size delivered in Brooklyn’s rocking Nude Beach, whose hard pop anthems and no-nonsense delivery make them a band I’d go see a bunch more times.