Kevin Bronson on September 12th, 2014

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Review and photos by Zane Roessell

“Is this the line for Jimmy Kimmel?” somebody asked outside Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Thursday night as fans killed time in a long and winding queue. No, this was the line for Earth, not the stars.

The long-running doom metal band visited the Masonic Lodge behind their latest release “Primitive and Deadly,” their eighth album. Their dense, droning music, moving at the pace of a pallbearer’s march, could not have been more perfect for a show at a cemetery.

Frontman Dylan Carlson, in a blazer and grey Lacoste polo, led the band – bassist Don McGreevy and drummer Adrienne Davies – through older songs such as “Old Black.” Earth’s entrancing circular melodies were punctuated by intense (guitars pointed skyward) theatrics and long, rolling bass notes that snapped into place with heavy drumming. It all made for a solemn atmosphere in the room, with the audience slowly nodding their heads forward in a trance.

Included was the “new song about authentic good stuff like sex and the end of the world,” Carlson said, introducing “There Is a Serpent Coming” (co-written by Mark Lanegan, by the way).

King Dude opened the show with its own brand of intense music, including the live debut of the new song “Be Free” with singer Chelsea Wolfe.

Frontman TJ Cowgill and band ran through many of their notable songs – “Jesus In The Courtyard,” “Fear Is All You Know,” “Bloody Mary” and “Holy Land,” and ended with “Watching Over You.” As is their style, King Dude integrated pastoral Americana, blues and folk into songs that carry an incredible weight derived from religious undertones and iconography. On this night, much of that import seemed lost on the Masonic Lodge crowd and their omnipresent cellphones, though.

“Where do you live?” somebody in the crowd yelled at one point. “Seattle, you?” Cowgill responded. “Silver Lake,” the fan shot back. After a pause, Cowgill said “Cool, man,” before diving into the next song. After which, he asked: “Anyone else want to know where I live?”