“We always do better at off beat venues,” says Boxcar Satan guitarist and vocalist Sanford Allen. “Weird little venues kind of suit us best. That was the environment we were born in.”

Luckily for Allen and his band, San Antonio’s Boxcar Satan will play Bob’s Java Jive in Tacoma Thursday, Oct 9. As far as venues go, it doesn’t get much more offbeat, little or weird than the Jive. Though this will be Boxcar Satan’s first stop in Tacoma in their 15 years as a band, and obviously the band’s first time playing at Bob’s Java Jive, through what he has seen and heard Allen compares the Jive to San Antonio’s famous, now defunct punk club Tacoland — a place where Boxcar Satan cut its teeth. “The Java Jive looks like the type of place where we’ll have fun” says Allen.

“We take primal aggression and weirdness and couple it with all the other stuff we love listening to,” continues Allen about the driving theme of his band. “We’re three weirdoes. I think we’ve all drank the same Kool Aid. We call (the band’s sound) ‘no wave blues,’ but we don’t limit ourselves to the blues. We all grew up learning how to play with bands like Birthday Party, Scratch Acid, and the Butthole Surfers — pretty much the most demented and f***ed up stuff out there. It’s very open ended. To me it feels as natural as drinking water and taking a piss.”

Call it what you will, but Boxcar Satan definitely has an eye- and ear-catching mix of old, dusty blues, cowboy murder ballads and straight ahead punk to hang its hat on. It’s a sonic resume they’ll be putting on display over the course of the three-week tour that will bring Boxcar Satan to Tacoma, and also on their new CD, Trouble All Its Own — which will mark the band’s fifth full-length release. Allen calls the band’s forthcoming CD “a good rock record.” 

 

“It just keeps evolving,” says Allen of his band. “We’ve been around. I don’t think the idea has played itself out yet. Plus, I’m not ready to start my space rock band yet.”

Good thing. Boxcar Satan is running on all cylinders. See for yourself next Thursday. 

[Bob’s Java Jive, Lozen, Boxcar Satan, Mico de Noche, Thursday, Oct. 9, 8 p.m., 2102 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma, 253.475.9843]