The venerable harlequin thrash-core group An Albatross (Wilkes Barre, PA) closed the Panache Booking showcase at Union Pool this Saturday, capping off a week of excellent shows during this year’s CMJ Music Marathon. An Albatross have heavy thrasher guitar riffs, deep molasses bass lines, and break-neck drumming, but their lead vocalist, Eddie B. Gieda III, exudes a crusty glam-rock swagger and screams like a depraved Steven Tyler, sweating profusely, smiling with a false propriety, punishing his tambourine as if this were the last cry for help from a torture chamber of self-inflicted mental water-boarding. When I walked backstage after the show to talk to Gieda, I found him on a tiny set of stairs, sobbing with his head between his knees. “He always cries after his shows” a thin blonde lady friend informed me, gently fanning him with a rolled-up shirt. “What are you thinking about when you’re performing?” I ask him. “I think of myself as somewhere between a fetus just prior to birth and a human form just about to die. And about how absolutely dehydrated and malnourished I am” he replied. This was An Albatross’s first US show this year, and kicks off a month-long tour of back-to-back shows all over the country. Watch footage of this show here.
Eddie B. Gieda III of An Albatross performs on the bar at Union Pool, CMJ Oct 24 2009. Photo by Mimi Luse
Eddie B. Gieda III of An Albatross with his back to the crowd. Photo by Mimi Luse
