John “Speedo” Reis, mastermind of San Diego’s Rocket from the Crypt and co-front man of Hot Snakes, has assembled yet another crew of forge-smithed journeymen, herded them into the van and has them on road. The new outfit, The Night Marchers, kicked off a thirteen-date, coast-to-coast, rock-venue luge ride last Friday in Mesa, AZ, and still have stops to make in Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Detroit and the major markets of the North East, in support of their debut release, See You In Magic (Vagrant/Swami), before crossing the pond for a run of UK dates in June.
Drummer Jason Kourkounis, ex- of Delta 72, who also sat behind Reis in Hot Snakes, boasts of the Marchers’ “all Greek rhythm section”, where he teams up with Montreal bassist, Thomas Kitsos. The line-up is rounded out by former Hot Snakes hand Gar Wood, who has traded the bass guitar he played in Snakes’ for one of the six-string variety in this new assembly.
The Night Marchers are considerably more straight-ahead than Hot Snakes, even reminiscent of a stripped down version of Rocket. Magic is a rapid-fire blast of one irresistible head-bobbing hook after another. The tunes on Magic endeavor to affect the end of hammering home these hooks by employing every instrument in the band as a percussion instrument. Guitars are beaten raucously as though by the right hand of a drummer pounding out a call to a battle march on his snare head.
By all reports from the early shows, it sounds as though Reis’ new outfit might well be worth catching if they are coming thorough your patch of weeds.
April 30 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
May 2 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
May 3 - Omaha, NE -Waiting Room,
May 4 - Chicago, IL - Shuba’s
May 5 -Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
May 7 -New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
May 8 -Boston, MA - Middle East
May 9 -Philadelpha, PA - Warehouse Show
May 10-Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
