Kevin Bronson on March 3rd, 2017

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Besides their intensely visceral songs, one of the qualities that has elevated the Dead Ships to the top of L.A.’s garage-rock heap is their penchant for playing every show as if their sole role on the planet is to reclaim rock ’n’ roll.

And so it was Wednesday night at the Roxy, where the Dead Ships gave their latest and perhaps greatest sweat-drenched outing, getting a little help from some friends along the way. The band played two new songs — “Graffiti” and “Cuts Both Ways” — plus Levon Helm’s “When I Go Away,” along with tunes from their two full-lengths, “Electric Ahab” and last year’s Brendan Canning-produced “Citycide.” Along the way, the core trio of Devlin McCluckey, Alex Moore and Christopher Spindelilus was joined by Emily Gold of Velvet and Andrew Martin of Moon Honey. Gold sang a duet with McCluskey on “You Were Young,” and Martin assisted with face-melting solos for “When I Go Away” and the ensemble performance of “Capable.” The Dead Ships encored with their cover of The Band’s “Ophelia” and their own single “Canyon.”

Kim and Created preceded the headliners with a heavy set performed as a drum-and-bass two-piece, with the frontwoman hopping off stage and stalking the crowd, ultimately falling to the floor thrashing in the center of the crowd. Facial kicked off the night with a typically high-energy set of songs from their 2016 release “Mistress.”

Photos by Zane Roessell