By: Melanie Zachariades

This past Tuesday night, Roadkill Ghost Choir delivered an impressive performance at the Mercury Lounge for their recently released record, In Tongues. This is a second album for the band, whose debut EP Quiet Light was released in 2013.

Hailing from DeLand, Florida and consisting of Andrew Shepard, his brothers Zach and Maxx Shepard, Stephen Garza, and Kiffy Meyer, the band quite possibly could have stepped onto stage straight outta van from 1975. The lead singer, Andrew and his brother Zach gave the audience some serious hair envy with their rock n’ roll flowing locks, which proved useful during many of the bands headbanging moments throughout the set. The 70’s influence went beyond the band’s looks and vibe. A 70’s southern rock sound can be heard on many of their songs, especially on “Devout,” which happened to be the only track they played from their debut EP.

Roadkill Ghost Choir opened their set with the high octane energy of “A Blow to the Head”, no doubt the hardest track on the record. The intensity didn’t let up from there, even when Andrew announced to the audience they were going to play a slower track. “This is a no judgement room,” he said, “do whatever the fuck you want.”

Overall, lead singer Andrew Shepard infected each track from the new album with a harder edge than found on the recordings, with just the right amount of angst and screaming in key moments.  A lot of underlying grunge elements came through the performances as well (with the help of some serious distortion from the band).

The opening track from the album “Slow Knife” was played towards the end of the set, which the band announced they’d just released an awesome new video for (see below).

Roadkill Ghost Choir brings an impressive mix of genres to their live shows that makes them a great act to catch. Be sure to find out where they’re going next, and check out their music online:

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