Murder By Death have always been one of those bands I've meant to get more into every time I hear them. I first saw them opening for Clutch back in 2008 and then saw them again with Sarah Shook & The Disarmers in 2019. They're the rare kind of band that can play with both of those artists and have it all make sense. As soon as Murder By Death announced that their just released and excellent Egg & Dart would be the band's final album along with a farewell tour, I knew it was now or never and headed out to the Paradise to see them one last time.
Early on in Murder By Death's final show in Boston, singer/frontman Adam Turla announced the plan for the evening. They would be playing two songs from all ten of their albums plus a few more. As far as farewell tours go, you simply can't go wrong with that. It allowed the band to play moments from their entire twenty-five year career and gave fans of any of their periods to hear favorites.
One thing that has always surprised me when it comes to their live shows is just how much more rocking their live show is. That was on full display at the Paradise where even their newer, more melancholy songs were injected with a little extra oomph Friday night. It saw the live debut of "Believe," which is fairly impressive considering how far into a farewell tour they are and Murder By Death is still bringing out new songs for their faithful. What I enjoyed the most about Friday night's show was how twenty-five years of music flowed together perfectly. Without the songs all sounding the same, they all felt like a complete unit of music, which is very rare for a band that's been around a quarter of a century.
Friday night's show was for the diehard fans. I've personally lost many a favorite band without a farewell tour, so I'm thrilled that Murder By Death fans got a true chance to say goodbye to a long beloved band. With their set coming in at twenty-three songs and nearly two hours, fans were well rewarded and got to say a true goodbye to one of the best live bands from this century.
Opening the show was punk icon Laura Jane Grace, who I believe was performing with The Mississippi Medicals. (Bassist Matt Patton is currently touring with Drive-By Truckers and was replaced for this tour by who appeared to be Mike Abbate, formerly of Screaming Females.) Playing a short forty-five minute opening slot, Grace packed as many songs as possible into her set. It gave a sense of urgency to her set, which included new songs like "Wearing Black" and "Your God (God's Dick.)" While there were definitely fans in the crowd primarily there to see Grace, she had a but of a battle against Murder By Death fans that only cared about seeing the headliner. Closing out with the killer one-two Against Me! punch of "I Was a Teenage Anarchist" and "Black Me Out," Grace rewarded her fans along with anyone with an open mind for music.
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