Murder by Death Teams up With Laura Jane Grace for Farewell Tour Stop at Saint Andrew’s Hall
Murder By Death, who is on their farewell tour run, teamed up with Punk Veteran Laura Jane Grace for a handful of tour dates, stopping at Saint Andrew’s Hall on June 20.
LAURA JANE GRACE
To be utterly honest, we are more informed about Laura Jane Grace than we are about Murder By Death. We mean that as no disrespect to Laura’s tour partners, but we were absolutely amped to catch this set. Kicking off her set with some of her new music from her upcoming album ‘Adventure Club,’ we were able to witness “Active Trauma” from the pit, which was a delight. One of our favorite parts of that song is Laura’s wife, Paris Campbell-Grace, singing backup on that track, with her exclaiming “ACTIVE TRAUMA!” as if it’s two parts of an ADHD brain bouncing between their duo exchange.
“Hole In My Head” was a fan favorite to hear song 3, before we retreated to the balcony to catch the rest of the set. This tour is right on the heels of Laura’s most recent single release of “Wearing Black,” an anthem that reminds listeners that Pride began and as is always a protest with the line “My pride’s a riot, it’s not a parade,” but still incorporates current Pride culture (including the shocking mention of Jojo Siwa, we’ll take it).
After the first 9 tracks, we blended into Against Me! territory, knocking through “Pints of Guiness Makes You Strong” and “The Ocean,” before taking a brief detour to nail “Your God (God’s Dick),” a song she was widely publicized for after playing at one of the Bernie Sanders Oligarchy Tour stops. For the record, the song is great, and to the man who was wearing a “God is everywhere” hoodie in the sound booth — we hoped you enjoyed it too.
She closed out the set with some of the biggest fan favs, including “I Was a Teenage Anarchist,” followed by “Black Me Out,” and “True Trans Soul Rebel.” Some fans even got the chance to snag handwritten lyrics of “True Trans Soul Rebel” from the merch table, which was a super cool way to commemorate the evening. Laura and Paris were accompanied on this tour by bassist Mike Abbate, formerly of Screaming Females, as well as legendary punk drummer Mikey Erg.
Myself and fellow photographer Jacob Giampa of Between Two Bolts quickly linked up with the band to take a quick photo or two, and then they also honored us with a selfie — once again proving how great this group of musicians truly are.
MURDER BY DEATH
Murder By Death executed their set with absolute precision. Somewhat moody, but ever artistic. In their video intro, they noted this was the 1,892nd Murder By Death show, as well as informing those who may not be aware that this is their farewell tour. They called it bittersweet, all before taking the stage.
With this many members to play a live set, that leaves little movement around your personal space, but the band made great use of what real estate they had to work with, including violin, cello, keyboard, bass, and guitar. They powered through a 23-song setlist, including the encore, with highlights like “Lost River,” “Lose You,” and “I’m Afraid of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”
There were some surprises, including the live debut of their track “Black Velvet Cloak,” and the band wound down the end of the set with “I Came Around,” “Last Night on Earth,” and “Alas.”
While we didn’t walk in knowing Murder by Death outright, it made us want to revisit the tracks we’d just witnessed. Now we just need to be careful getting too invested… Nothing worse than finding a band you love, riiiight as they’re retiring.