Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats Have a Live Album Coming Next Month, Dropped “Dead Eyes Of London Live”

June 20th, 2023 at 1:49pm
Hesher Keenan

British psych metal masters and peddlers of the fuzz Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats are back and they’re looking to bring back the old days when people actually liked live albums with the July 28 release of Slaughter on First Avenue.

Featuring songs recorded from two different shows at Minneapolis’ First Avenue in 2019 and 2022, Slaughter on First Avenue highlights multiple points in the band’s career as if you were there. According to the band’s founder and frontman Kevin R. Starrs, the idea of recording and releasing a live album happened mostly by chance, resulting in a very real sounding live album — warts and all.

“People have been asking for a live record, and sometimes it’s nice to give people what they want. Especially if you follow it up with something they definitely don’t want! Overall it’s a very raw sounding recording, and that’s just how it was on the night. There was no specific reason for choosing the first show, other than some guy just turned up and offered to record it, so we let him! It’s a proper live record with all the mistakes kept in.”

Though both shows were recorded years apart from each other and spanned the band’s discography up to their respective points, Starrs suggests that the live album still flows in a way that showcases just how unrelenting and dark their occult doom sound really can be in a live setting.

“I think one of our strengths is that most of what we do live is the exact opposite of what’s expected at a rock show. There’s no warm chit-chat, no rehearsed anecdotes, no pleasantries, no running around. It’s so dark you can’t see our faces, and sometimes we play with our backs turned. It shouldn’t work, but it does. We just lock into the music and feed off the crowd. Some people still want all that old-time stage banter stuff and want to feel loved, which is fine, but I think a cold relentless hammer attack on the senses works better for a band like us.
“The second show had a few different songs so it made sense to add those in,” he adds. “The first show was better, though. I remember the crowd was pretty wild that night. The second show was more subdued and a bit looser. That was just as gigs started happening again, so I think people were still a bit cautious. Either that or all the wild ones had died!”

Apart from the announcement of their live album, Starrs said the band is also working on new material that he says will “hopefully appear at some point without warning or explanation,” saying that it’s going to be completely different from what the band’s done before.