Starbenders Descend to Rock The Earth at The Radioroom Greenville
Gracing us mere mortal stardust creatures with their presence, The Starbenders bent space-time for one celestial night at The Radio Room Greenville.
The Starbenders descended from the intergalactic, interdimensional, Bowie-verse they sometimes inhabit to bring their listeners at The Radio Room their unique glam-come-classic/punk fusion rock that bends not only the stars and galaxies that they intermittently orbit and inhabit but the notions of what guitar-driven rock and transcendence should be beyond their obvious post-70s glam/punk pocket universe inspirations.
Setting the table for the neutron star power that is Kimmie Shelter, the presiding space-witch goddess of The Starbenders, and lead singer and rhythm guitar player, The Haunt and New Issue opened the portal which allowed The Starbenders to materialize. The Haunt’s singer, Anastasia Grace Haunt, did most of the heavy lifting in opening the portal with her deceptively powerful voice. For such a tiny slip of a nymph, Anastasia’s voice is so unproportionately powerful that it can presumably crack mountains much like Black Bolt’s can if she willed it to. Instead, it paved the stardust highway for Kimmie Shelter to split ions with her equally powerful voice and guitar playing.
For about an hour and a half, The Starbenders played through the highlights of their excellent and most high-profile release Love Potions as well as their most recent single releases (from their forthcoming new album) that included the hard rocking “If You Need It” and “Sex.” These two singles mine new asteroid mineral heaviness that thus far had only existed as thinner veins running through The Starbenders’ most heavy tracks. Hanging out with the heavy rockers featured in the short-lived Paradise City for Amazon Prime Video might have exerted a gravitational pull on Kimmie which in turn pulled The Starbenders into heavier space-time continuum territory.
Casting a white spell on the crowd praising rock n’ roll, Kimmie rolled into “Bitches Be Witches,” one of the highlights of Love Potions. Another highlight from the album “Holy Mother,” and a personal favorite of mine, was also played, but like in their live videos, The Starbenders nixed the tempo change outro where the band launches into intergalactic space. It must not work live, sadly. Still, “Holy Mother” was amazing live and definitely a highlight for this fan.
The Starbenders are the perfect inheritors of the glam/punk sound that was pioneered in the 1970s, but they are no imitators. Taking the best of glam, punk, and just great straightforward rock and making it their own, they prove that there is still plenty of hyperspace and new planetary territory to be explored and conquered in what the mainstream considers to be a dying star: great rock music. Their conquest should continue unabated with their new album Take Back The Night. If the rest of the tracks on the album are anything like the aforementioned new singles, The Starbenders legendary status will be assured.
