I felt lucky to see introduce its new album, “Sineater,” to Denver at the on Saturday night. Itap always exciting to see Denver bands with a good chance of making it big, and itap especially exciting to see venues like the Bluebird sold-out for shows featuring local artists. Saturday’s show met both criteria. Opening acts Land Lines and A. Toms Collins put in solid, energetic sets and the audience seemed excited to celebrate the bands and their new work.
Hitting the stage clad in black and white á la Robert Palmer, the band showed the sweaty Bluebird crowd that it meant business. Besequined lead singer Hayley Helmericks is an engaging front woman, reminiscent of the Kills’ Allison Mossheart with a sunnier disposition. Slithering through a set of sinister, sexy songs, Helmericks created a hypnotic vibe, buoyed by the powerful rhythms of drummer Andrew Warner.
The band’s sound manages to be freshly original and simultaneously derivative of some of the best of danceable ’80s New Wave — part Joy Division, part Siouxsie and the Banshees. Generally playing as a five piece, the band welcomed friends on stage including a four piece “Witch Choir” that provided eerie vocal harmonies and auxiliary percussion from a pair of drummers, including longtime Denver alternative music fixture Kit Peltzel.
My favorite moment of the night was “Like a Moth.” When Helmericks chanted, “You opened my mail, but that was for me” and thumped her chest emphatically, I completely caught her drift. Check out the band’s new album “Sineater” while Snake Rattle Rattle Snake is still “ours.”
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Amy McGrath is a Denver-based writer and regular contributor to Reverb.
Michael McGrath is a Denver area photographer. His work is available at . Visit .
