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Live From New York
Guitars In NYC: Fred Frith, Frank Zappa, Jonathan Richman, Robert Cray, Lenny Kaye, Bob Mould, Frank Marino, Jim Hall & Roky Erickson
Martin Longley
Martin Longley also writes for the BBC Music website, Jazzwise and The Wire magazines, plus the NYC Jazz Record and Coventry Telegraph newspapers.The following night, it was back to the psychedelic rock. In fact, singer-guitarist Roky Erickson is one of the genre's creators, as a founder of the 13th Floor Elevators in the late 1960s. Lately, he's being backed up by the much younger Okkervill River combo (also Texans), and it's a marriage made in acid heaven. Although this show wasn't up the orgiastic standard of their 2010 New Year's Day gig at Park Slope's Southpaw, they still roked out with gusto. Erickson frequently starts up each song with an abrasive guitar figure, before the rest of the band leaps in, churning up an insane miasma of freak. It's actually Will Sheff who provides the manic guitar solos, with Erickson sticking to a deep-toned rifferama, leaving him free to sing in his theatrically ominous tones. They should have played on Halloween, as "Night Of The Vampire" and "I Walked With A Zombie" were particular stand-outs, revealing some of Erickson's major obsessions. He is surely the king of gothic acid rock.
