Antone Newcombe, Brian Jonestown Massacre. Photo by: Thomas Girard
The Brian Jonestown Massacre at Off Broadway.
More of a constantly evolving musical work-in-progress than a traditional band, San Francisco’s The Brian Jonestown Massacre has somehow always remained slightly below the radar throughout its 28 year existence, even after the release of 2004’s indie film Dig, which chronicled the love/hate relationship that once existed between the BJM and the Dandy Warhols.
Constantly undergoing multiple personnel changes, approximately 35 musicians have entered, exited, and often re-entered the band, including Jeff Davies of Dead Meadow and Peter Hayes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. The only consistent member throughout the BJM’s numerous incarnations has been its fearless leader, Anton Newcombe, a highly gifted and prolific singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist who has always taken his passion for 60’s psychedelia to interesting, intriguing, and often mesmerizing places.
The BJM are currently on tour in the U. S. to introduce and promote the material of their upcoming June release Something Else, the band’s 17th full-length, which although doesn’t break any new stylistic ground for the band, does more than aptly demonstrate their ability to keep doing, what they always have done, very well. Playing St. Louis for the first time in eight years, Newcombe and his seven-member caravan will be returning to one of our city’s best-sounding venues, Off Broadway, and will undoubtedly be thoroughly impressing us with the lengthy, intense, and scorchingly-hot performance that they seemingly never fail to provide their audiences with.–Michele Ulsohn
