STONER Rocks Ferndale’s Magic Bag

 

A few weeks ago, as the summer evening began to draw to an earlier close, the rock fans of the Detroit area were treated to an evening of veteran desert rock by new projects from key figures that helped create and define the subgenre 30 years ago. STONER, a hard rocking three piece, features Kyuss drummer, Brant Bjork, on lead vocals and guitar and infamous Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age/Mondo Generator/Dwarves bassist, Nick Oliveri, who also contributes backing and lead vocals, brought their throwback ‘90s rock style to The Magic Bag in Ferndale to a small but thoroughly engaged and supportive audience. Touring to support their newly released second LP, Totally…, STONER brought new music in the style of the songs that brought them early underground success, making it instantly recognizable and even comfortably predictable to fans who have followed their work with various other acts. Devoid of any real gimmicks, STONER are somewhat novel for having their sound in a time when mainstream music, even the rock side of it, has long since moved on to other sounds, styles, and younger artists.

Opening the show was a mostly improvised set from MarioLalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers, which also featured contributions from Oliveri and STONER drummer, Ryan Gut. Lalli, a desert rock legend himself, possibly best-known for writing and signing the original, Desert Sessions version of QOTSA’s, “You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, but I Feel Like a Millionaire,” conducted his supporting players with cues to increase or decrease volume and tempo, leaving room for him to work in spoken vocal segments, sometimes from memory, and other times reading from a notepad on his phone. The Magic Bag show included a break between two longer, improvised pieces to feature Oliveri’s lead vocals on a performance of Roky Erickson’s, “Bloody Hammer,” originally a B-side from QOTSA’s Songs for the Deaf. Following his opening set, Lalli himself got back to work manning the merch table for the rest of the night. This tour is clearly a low-budget, no-frills operation.

After a short set change, STONER took the stage and launched into “Rad Stays Rad,” the opening track from their debut LP, Stoners Rule, and by the end of the night had included all of the songs from the album at some point in the show. In addition to a new song, “No Brainer,” which has yet to be released, the band included rocking renditions of four songs from their latest LP, most notably the swampy blues of “Strawberry Creek,” and a fast run through Motorhead’s tribute to one of the late Lemmy Kilmister’s favorite bands, “R.A.M.O.N.E.S.,” which fans cheered and sang along to without it being introduced or credited at any point. Excellent guitar work from Bjork balanced well with amazing and hard-hitting drums from Gut and a return to form for Oliveri, essentially reprising the position he played 20 years ago in Queens of the Stone Age (participating in some singing and songwriting but holding down the supporting position on Bjork’s songs equally well).

The two-song encore surprised fans with back-to-back Kyuss covers, in this case, “Gardenia” and “Green Machine,” with Bjork and Oliveri trading off vocal duties in place of John Garcia. These songs got the best and most enthusiastic response, somewhat predictably, but didn’t really sound much different than the band’s originals they had been playing all night, which further highlighted the group’s songwriting and performance chops, in general and compared to their work writing and recording those same songs several decades prior. An extended guitar solo that devolved into a wall of ringing feedback ended the show as the players from both bands extended their appreciation and briefly mingled with a few concertgoers near the stage and later near the merch table and in front of the venue following the show. While STONER didn’t blaze any trails or break any new musical ground at The Magic Bag, or even on their albums, for that matter, they are a living legacy of a sound and style that became integral to rock’s evolution from the 20^th into the 21^st century, and it’s somehow reassuring to know these characters are still rocking hard, and very, very loudly, all these years later.

Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers – set list:

Improv #1 (jam)
Bloody Hammer (Roky Erickson)
Improv #2 (jam)

 

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STONER – set list:

Rad Stays Rad

The Older Kids

Evel Never Dies

Stand Down

Own Yer Blues

No Brainer

Nothin’

Party March

A Million Beers

Strawberry Creek

Driving Miss Lazy

R.A.M.O.N.E.S. (Motorhead)

Tribe

Fly Girl

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Gardenia (Kyuss)

Green Machine (Kyuss)

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