Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Photo credit: Erica McKeehen

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the San Francisco alt-rock three piece of Robert Levon Been (vocals, guitar, and bass), Peter Hayes, (vocals and guitar), and Leah Shapiro (drums, 2008-present) summoned a heavy sonic downpour upon Chicago’s Vic Theatre on February 10th, 2018, leaving the sold-out audience awestruck by their all-consuming and captivating live prowess. The band kicked off the Wrong Creatures tour earlier last month in support their latest release of the same name. Seattle-based psych-garage band Night Beats opened.

Formed by Been, Hayes, and English drummer Nick Jago (who left the band after ten years and was replaced by Shapiro, formerly the touring drummer for The Raveonettes) in 1998, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (often shortened to BRMC) named themselves after the motorcycle gang in the the 1953 film “The Wild One,” starring Marlon Brando — and keeping in pace with tried and true icons of defiance, the band continues on Wrong Creatures to reach for catharsis from distant demons and ignite electricity brooding beneath the stubborn surface. Despite a consistent approach that spans an almost twenty-year career, don’t judge a book simply by its cover — BRMC is a force beyond careful rock and roll packaged in leather jackets and cigarettes.

On their eighth studio release, BRMC return to their signature slurry slides and rhythmic rumbles. Been and Hayes take turns singing tunes in cool and croon-y fashion, but no matter who takes the lead, the result is nearly always an array of fuzzy vocals against layers of shrieking guitars and crushing drums. As Been and Hayes originally bonded in high school over their love of rock relics — psychedelic, noise pop, and shoegaze — few of the group’s albums take on an uncharted sound territory (with the exception of 2005’s great lost tribute to Americana, Howl), and Wrong Creatures is no exception. The sobering longing and morbidity on tracks like “Little Thing Gone Wild,” and “Carried from the Start” revisit familiar themes of mistrust, alienation, and despair, while “Echo,” like many moments on 2013’s Specter at the Feast, radiate positivity and support in an otherwise bleak social landscape.

At the Vic Theatre, BRMC smashed and thrashed through crowd pleasers like “Whatever Happened to My Rock ‘n’ Roll (Punk Song)” and “Stop,” while making sure to steep in sorrow when the moments came in heavy like a thick fog (I’m thinking specifically of “Mercy” and “Complicated Situation”), reminding listeners that mourning can break way to resolve and even elation.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Setlist, 2/10/18

1. Spook
2. Little Thing Gone Wild
3. King of Bones
4. Beat the Devil’s Tattoo
5. Ain’t No Easy Way
6. Stop
7. Question of Faith
8. Circus Bazooko
9. Berlin
10. Conscience Killer
11. White Palms
12. Echo
13. Carried From the Start
14. Complicated Situation
15. Shuffle Your Feet
16. Love Burns
17. All Rise
18. Awake
19. Six Barrel Shotgun
20. Spread Your Love

Encore:
Ninth Configuration
Whatever Happened to My Rock ‘n’ Roll (Punk Song)

For more information on BRMC or to catch them during their Wrong Creatures tour, be sure to check out their official website: BlackRebelMotorcycleClub.com.