The Blind Shake with The Mallard at Frank’s

Tuesday night was as hot and muggy as every single night has been around these parts, but shortly after Minneapolis superpower trio The Blind Shake zipped up their matching black track jackets and stepped onto the small stage at Frank’s Power Plant, the night began to positively swelter to the point of spontaneous combustion.

Things were already going well. The Mallard, a Grrl-Boy-Grrl-Boy clangorous band from San Francisco, had worked everyone in the room into a hot lather with a loud set of dirty-pop dissonance, plucked from their debut elpee Yes On Blood, which is available on Castle Face Records, home of Thee Oh Sees, The Fresh & Onlys, and some Ty Segall projects, among others. Lead vocalist and natural focal point Greer McGettrick, armed with a red guitar and a fair amount of reverb in her microphone, howled her way through the set as the band piled slab after juicy slab of instinctive chords and primitive beats on top of each other, working the room into a stew of booze, sweat, and reflexive human hormonal flow.

The Blind Shake set was as deliberate an assault of minimal, muscular song structure and precision delivery as I’ve seen. I was told by several friends that The Blind Shake is one of the very best present-day live rock and roll acts around, so I came in with high expectations. The Blind Shake soared right past those expectations, in fact, I will go see them play every chance I get.

Brothers Mike and Jim Blaha lead the attack out front sharing vocals and splitting up six-string guitar duties; one on baritone (in place of a bass) and the other on regular guitar. Dave Roper is the anchor on drums. All three together onstage, with matching jackets and down-to-the-scalp haircuts, look like a team of superheroes. Mike Blaha spent at least 10 percent of the show airborne, Jim Blaha spent at least that much time high-kicking, and Roper thrashes his drumkit with enough furious energy to power a nuclear sub. Compress manic punk rock energy with threads of Psycho-Surf, bastardized Spaghetti Western, and run it all through a filter of primal tension, and deliver it with machine precision and there you’ll have The Blind Shake doing the most intense rock and roll show of 2012.

https://urbanmilwaukeedial.com/2012/07/22/tcdiy-make-your-own-infused-vodka/