The English rock band Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats will make their Richmond debut when they perform on September 7 at the Broadberry.
The English rock band Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats will make their Richmond debut when they perform on September 7 at the Broadberry.
They’ll be commemorating the release of their most recent album, The Night Creeper, a strongly atmospheric album evocative of the emerging heavy metal of the 60s and 70s, featuring vintage instruments and recording equipment.
In an interview with RVAMag anticipating the band’s performance in Richmond, Uncle Acid’s lead guitarist and singer Kevin Starr described their preference for a more vintage recording style. “It was all done straight to tape,” said Starrs. “It was all live, in the one room, amps and drums and everything spilling into the mics. It all adds to that sound we love.”
The Night Creeper continues the band’s love of dark and brutal lore. Their previous album, “Mind Control,” told the story of a fictional cult leader in the vein of Jonestown, whereas this new record aims to pull from a more visceral concept.
“The idea was to base it in 1940’s New York City, with this night-creeper character on the loose, which has been created in some ways by the press,” Starr said. “There’s a police officer that’s going around killing people, doing a lot of dodgy stuff, the press are hand in hand with the police and they’re saying, oh, no, it’s a homeless guy called the night-creeper, you’ve got to be careful, watch out for the homeless and the tramps.”
Despite recent conversations about police brutality in justice systems around the world, Starr stated that the album doesn’t have a political message as such, but still remains relevant.
“As I was writing it, you’d see all these stories in America and also in the UK as well of police cover-ups and of government and press colluding together,” said Starr. “It’s just meant to be a reflection of how things are at the minute and how things were even back then. Not a lot has really changed.”
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats broke out with their 2011 album “Blood Lust.” The band originally put the album’s songs on YouTube before positive reception led to an official release of Blood Lust.
Since then, the band has been quite successful, creating two more albums and even opening for Black Sabbath on tour in 2013 after sending copies of their albums to the iconic band.
“It was very surprising,” Starr said about the Black Sabbath Tour. “You would expect it to be a big name to travel with them, so it was a great honor that they chose a small, younger band.”
Anyone who kicks on an Uncle Acid record will immediately make the connection to the 70s metal gods – between his doubled, whiney vocals and the grinding, riff-driven guitar, the comparisons to Sabbath are uncanny.
Starr recalled the experience fondly saying they played to crowd sizes they couldn’t have imagined prior.
“It was really good exposure for us,” he said.
When asked what concert goers see at their shows, Starr laughed. “Well, not a lot,” he said, jokingly. “It’s usually really dark, with lots of fog and stuff… It’s just a lot of headbanging, getting into the zone, doing solos with your back turned to the audience, and all this ridiculous stuff,” he said.
“It’s a rock show, just a lot of good fuzzy, heavy rock.”
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats will be performing on September 7 at the Broadberry in Richmond, you can snag tickets here!.
