Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats in The Academy 2 on December 13th 2013
“I’m the Devil/ And I’m here to do the Devil’s work” So spake K.R Starrs, as Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats assume the identity of auld Satan himself at the end of tonight’s gig. The devil’s work was afoot even before the Cambridge quartet took to the stage in The Academy 2, as his minions conspired to book them in what must rank as the worst venue in the city; a basement room with a central dancefloor that’s about two inches higher than the floor space surrounding it and big fucking pillars everywhere…well played, Satan. Well played.
The spectre of Black Sabbath looms large and heavy over tonight’s gig, with the headliners supporting Ozzy & Co on their current European tour. They’ve made the trip down from the previous night’s Belfast support and they’ve brought those big, fuzz-addled Sabbathian riffs along with them. Before that, though, our ear drums have already been subjected to some sonic brutality from Dublin four-piece Harvester. Volume levels are maxed-out, tribal drums and twin guitars resound, vocals go from growl to roar and back; it’s enough to curdle the creamy head on your Murphy’s.
Hammer-esque music blares over the PA, heralding Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats’ lurching riffs as Mt. Abraxas crawls forth, bursts into double-time, and pulls back once more. Crystal Spiders is just pure Ozzy, rumbling along at a stately-yet-raucous pace. With the band at Death’s Door, the heads of the three guitarists nod in unison; as the twin guitar lines kick in, heads in the crowd do similarly until those dual vocal harmonies of Starrs and Yotam Rubinger sound out – two men sounding like many.
Starrs’ solos are of the spidery, classic rock type – when they fly, it’s with the head of his guitar all over the place as the propensity of the onstage head-banging increases along with their momentum. A technical hitch is blamed on Friday the 13th (but we know it was Satan); things are soon back on track for more and more of the same slow, snaking distorted riffs on top of Itamar Rubinger’s drum march. His tribal rumble underpins the squeal and drone of the two guitars as the band become Lucifer’s mouthpiece on Devil’s Work, a final onslaught in this night of Dennis Wheatley meets Sabbath on a William Castle production.
That’s not to say Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats are a gimmick band – far from it. Theirs is a successful and sincere re-imagining of all those bands in the Sabbath mould, and when the guitarists are in full flow, heads down and faces obscured for the gig’s duration by a curtain of hair, it’s nigh impossible not to get pulled along by those fuck-you psych-guitar riffs. Satan tried his best to throw a few spanners in the works but this was not to be his night; Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats 1 – 0 Satan.