This Thursdays show in New York City was twice the occasion. First of all, a popular Manhattan bar/club Mercury Lounge was celebrating its 25th anniversary, and popular local New York City band Killcode played show for friends in venue where it all started for them.
Mercury Lounge might not be large scale, but it hosts shows almost every day, and sometimes even a few in a day. It’s a very popular spot in Lower East Side of Manhattan and a launch pad for many young and up and coming bands. The event was hosted by popular satellite radio Sirius XM DJ Tommy London, who hosts shows on Hair Nation and Ozzy’s Boneyard. Fellow New York rockers Ten Ton Mojo also joined the party.
Killcode is known for their anthem style hard rock songs, with their reach going as far as Europe. Still a relatively new band, they are spreading the code across the globe fast and their shows are always professional and exciting. For me it was the second one I witnessed, and they both were excellent.
The band were founded by vocalist Tom Morrisey and guitarist Chas Banellis and are joined by Rob Noxious on drums, Erric Bonesmith on bass and DC Gonzalez on guitar. All the guys are made for each other, on the stage they work as a very close knit group, moving and grooving infectiously while passing that feeling along to the crowd. Toms powerful singing travels through your body and all of the guitar players were absolute virtuosos on their instruments, with some parts of their songs constructed so that Chas and DC basically had guitar duels. All songs are rock anthems, easy to sing and jump along.
To date they have released two albums – the self titled release and last year’s release The Answer along with two EP’s. Tonight’s show consisted of all their best work, with most coming from their latest album The Answer – title song, Show Me, Shot and Kicking and Screaming. They also threw in a Twisted Sister cover of You Can’t Stop Rock’n’Roll.
The band are also working on a new material and at tonight’s show they played for the first time in public, their new song called Phenomenon. Tom even asked the audience to refrain from cell phone usage during the performance so it does not get leaked in public before scheduled time. Secretly I must say, it was very good.
Killcode is absolutely the kind of the band that everyone who are into rock music should be aware of. If you haven’t caught on to them yet, just find them on the world wide web and take a listen.
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Andris Jansons
