Created by New Orleans’ musical mad scientist Quintron, best known for the sweaty, psychedelic puppet shows he co-headlines with wife and fellow artistic eccentric Miss Pussycat, Weather Warlock doesn’t take its cues from any data-driven trends or industry execs. Instead, its mechanical creative inspirations come courtesy of atmospheric conditions and windspeed, using the local meteorology to chart its musical course on any given evening. To be fair, the non-descript chrome antenna, carefully positioned outside of Riverwest’s High Dive for Thursday night’s show, had plenty of support from Weather Warlock’s lineup, which included talent from some of alternative rock’s leading lights, but that doesn’t make the project’s underlying concept any less fascinating.
Initiating the proceedings, and perhaps adding something of a human touch, was Madison’s Fire Heads, featuring the inexhaustible Bobby Hussy, also of eponymous duo the Hussy, Cave Curse and countless other projects, on lead guitar. The group packs in all the catchy hooks and big choruses one would rightly expect from some crowd-pleasing rock ’n’ roll, only at 45 rpm instead of 33 1/3. The results, as hard and fast as they are short and sweet, are probably best experienced in a live setting, but also come through loud and clear on the band’s blistering self-titled sophomore effort, out late last year on independent label Big Neck Records.
As colorful visualizations unfurled in the background, complimented by High Dive’ surreally festive, semi-functioning Christmas lights, Weather Warlock laid down the groove for the rest of the show, which, presumably because it was warm, humid and calm, meant a rich, mellow, subtly undulating tone, one that gave its more organic bandmates plenty to build on. The personnel involved generally shifts from tour to tour, and indeed from date to date, but this show boasted a stellar lineup that included, in addition to Quintron himself, frequent Jeff the Brotherhood guitarist Kunal Prakash, Eyehategod drummer Aaron Hill and Milwaukee’s own Isaac Sherman, better known as the synth-driven Stormchaser.
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The improvisation that followed may have seen certain players take the lead at different times, but they all inevitably looked back to the odd musical wind vane, discreetly managed by Quintron on some mysterious looking machine of his own design, as their bandleader, and it led them in some rather jaw-dropping directions. The Cluster-esque drone it generated lent itself to an insistent motorik beat, which in turn gave a sense of urgent movement and purpose to all manner of musical digressions, some hard rocking, some just esoteric and weird. In fact, between the high concept and the impeccable musicianship, one really couldn’t have asked for more. Except maybe worse weather.
