Phases & Stages

Brothers and Sisters (Photo By Mary Sledd)

Brothers and Sisters, Faceless Werewolves, The Crack Pipes

Longbranch Inn, Feb. 18

Despite an unpleasant downpour of slush on Saturday night, the Longbranch Inn was packed to its tiny gills for a three-headed local bill. Inside the Eastside dive, a wormhole formed directly above the stage, allowing time and space to fold and decades to be traversed. Brothers and Sisters warmed things up with the sunshine twang of "New Life," from their self-titled album. On the beautiful "Old Age," singer/guitarist Will Courtney's handsome drawl led Trail of Dead's Conrad Keely on viola, while on "One Night" the intertwined harmonies of Sisters Lily and Marie soared, creating a velvety pocket of Seventies tambourine pop. The Faceless Werewolves got on stage next, kicking us into early Nineties screaming neon. Opening on the gritbucket kick of "That Beast," singer/guitarist Kelsey Wickliffe howled lyrics about beasts from Mars as guitarist Baldomero Valdez and drummer Erica Barton loaded a silver bullet of bluesy gunk. Barton took the reigns on the poppy "My Weakness," beating the skins while grunting out suggestive "yeahs." Any comparisons to the White Stripes can be shot and buried; the Werewolves are all Dirtbombed Royal Trux with better hooks. Then came time for the Crack Pipes' dance party, which should really be a TV show. Consummate showman the Rev. Ray Pride shouted the truth as the quartet rattled through their Sixties hip-shakin' R&B, dancing with Aretha and shaking the floor with a cover of Dylan's "New Pony." It all happened very fast, and then the wormhole disappeared.