It had been two months to the day that I’d seen Death Valley Girls live, and that was at the Levitation France festival in Angers. They had recently returned from a tour of Europe and the United Kingdom and were now approaching the halfway point of a U.S. tour that would wrap up with appearances at this year’s Psycho Music Festival and Levitation Austin. They played The Empty Bottle with local garage-psych rockers Waltzer and Detroit 60s psych-pop trio Shadow Show.
Waltzer played a fun, solid rock set with a band who, if I heard the lead singer, Sophie, correctly had only been playing together for a short time and was made of members of many other cool Chicago bands. You wouldn’t have guessed they haven’t been together long, because everyone was in synch and had the audience moving. “They sound like Caroline Rose fronting L7, but with more psychedelia,” I thought at one point during their set.
I was happy to hear from Shadow Show that they’re working on a new album, and equally delighted to hear their lovely psych-pop covered in lots of groovy fuzz in a live setting. They hadn’t played in Chicago since before the pandemic, so they were glad to be back on the road and playing a fun set. Afterward, I was stunned to learn that the father of bassist Kate Derringer was one of the driving forces behind the 7th Level music club I attended in Ft. Wayne, Indiana back in my high school days – and the inspiration for the name of this blog. Her father had seen my review of Shadow Show’s Silhouettes and asked her, “Who’s this guy who knows about the Level?” She’d read the review and was now just as floored to meet me in a weird “small world” moment.
Death Valley Girls came out and immediately got started with guitarist Larry Schemel and drummer Rikki Styxx creating a witch’s brew of beats and fuzz while lead singer / guitarist / keyboardist Bonnie Bloomgarden and bassist Sammy Westervelt shared a pre-set hug / meditation…and Ms. Westervelt rocked shoes that would make KISS envious.
The creepy sounds soon transformed in “Abre Camino,” which only seems to get heavier every time I hear it live. They flowed right into “Street Justice” and stomped the gas pedal to the floor after that. Bonnie Bloomgarden was going into near-trances when she’d play keyboards by the time they got to “Disco.” New song “Magic Powers,” with Sammy Wetervelt on lead vocals, sounds better every time I hear it. Bloomgarden was prowling through and hugging many in the crowd as she sang “Disaster (Is What We’re After),” and they came back from the bottom of the stage stairs to play “Seis Seis Seis” as a sort-of encore.
They also hung out and chatted with anyone who wanted to chat after the show. Larry Schemel told me that this is the first tour in a long while for them for which they’ve been able to hand-pick their opening bands, so seeing them live right now gives you an insight into bands they also love.
Keep your mind open.
Keep your mind open.
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