Saturday, Dec. 11: Roy

Hell's Kitchen

By Matt Driscoll on December 8, 2010

It's not every day that you get a show from Ben and Dave Verellen's band Roy. In fact, as Tacoma music fans know all too well, it hasn't happened in three years. A veteran of notable recent-rock stalwarts like Helms Alee, These Arms are Snakes and Harkonen, Ben Verellen makes music the way he makes amps - big, sturdy and with an ability to get really loud (no, seriously, Ben owns Verellen Amps, makers of the "Meat Smoke" amp, among others). Loud isn't the only trick up Verellen's sleeve, however. Often pictured in woodsy settings, guitars and antique guns in hand, Roy has been described as "an ongoing experiment," an "in-joke" and an "excuse to indulge in guilty pleasures." In reality, what it ends up being is an un-nauseatingly epic, plodding roll through post-post-hardcore-folk - all while wearing a flannel. Any show with Roy set to take the stage is one to catch. Throw in Pioneers West, Destruction Island, Colonies and a CD release from Goldwing, and you've got the kind of stuff dreams are made of. Or, as the man who put the show together - Destruction Island's David Bilbrey (Rural Wolf, Xylophones) - puts it, you've got a "doozey" of a show. I'll say so.

[Hell's Kitchen, with Colonies, Goldwing, Destruction Island, Pioneers West, 9 p.m., $5, 928 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]