Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats played Royale – 9/14

British retro-doom quartet Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats are fresh off the release of solid new LP The Night Creeper, and currently embarking on their second headlining trek across North America.

Frontman K.R. Starrs and his associates have comfortably made the leap from playing a rapidly sold-out Middle East Downstairs last year to the well-over-double capacity Royale this time around, and they came across as an increasingly assured live band. They still essentially played in the dark though, with nary a front light to be found throughout the whole set. Dramatic hair silhouettes were the name of the game, photo-wise. An amusing stage setup, complete with fake brick walls, light posts and trash cans and presumably meant to simulate an alleyway up which an actual Night Creeper might creep, was a more elaborately conceived backdrop than the white-noise TVs and dollar store Halloween decorations of the last tour.

Openers Ruby The Hatchet and Ecstatic Vision rounded out the bill nicely, with the former channeling a similar vein of vintage heavy metal as their hosts and the latter barreling headlong into lengthy psych excursions with flute and saxophone accents. Photos from the whole night are below.