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The Widow's Bane: Bringing zombie roots music to un-life
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Bat Catacombs, Mortimer Leech, and Frankline McKane. Photo credit: Jess d'Arbonne.
“Zombie pirate death polka.” That’s how the music of the Widow's Bane was first described to me. Imagine if Tom Waitts, Rasputina, and a rabid, sea-faring, musically talented mongrel dog from Appalachia had an undead love child… that would be the Widow’s Bane.
Last Friday night, I had the pleasure of spending the evening with this most gentlemanly band of zombie musicians at the B. Side Lounge in
I met them plying their trade on
I set out to discover just how these talented decomposers met their ends. There was Bat Catacombs, bassist, buried alive in
Then there was accordion player Rutherford Belleview, garroted with piano wire for playing his instrument (by a woman, no doubt). When I asked Franklin McKane, who plays banjo and drums, about his final moments, he sighed simply, “I was a gambling man.”
But perhaps the most fascinating and Faustian tale of woe came from fiddle player Rictus Corpum. He made a deal with the Devil for the woman he loved, but when he caught the harlot cheating, she sliced him across the chest with a scythe. After digging his way out of his grave, Rictus was out for revenge. The Devil, being an honest man, turned his wife into his violin, so each night Rictus Corpum has to listen to her whine. His tale is immortalized in the song “For Sentimental Reasons.”
Mortimer Leech introduces the band. Photo credit: Jess d'Arbonne.
Mortimer Leech, the band’s leader—and by far the most fearsome zombie of all—remained elusive. Looming over me with his gangly undead frame, made even taller by his intimidating top hat, Mortimer stared me down with bloodshot, wild eyes. I saw something in those eyes: mad musical genius, maybe, or my own untimely demise… before he winked at me and went off to tune his guitar. A monster, or a gentleman? It remains to be seen.
As Bat Catacombs and I bonded over our mutual humility and paper airplanes, he told me the tale of the band’s origin, 300 long years ago. The Widow’s Bane is the Devil’s ship. These zombie musicians are fated to terrorize the seas, singing with their haunting corpse voices to chill the life out of the living’s bones. Sounds like my kind of party.
But before the moon set and the Widow’s Bane could take the stage, they were introduced by the bluegrass strains and powerful voice of Suzanne of the Legendary River Drifters. And who should follow but the Dovekins, a band who boldly claimed to have hunted the Widow’s Bane for nigh on 200 years. They were an eclectic group, with the energy and musical passion to get the crowd dancing madly to the sound of their kazoos. Bat Catacombs hinted strongly that the Dovekins have attempted to sink the dead ship the Widow’s Bane on more than one occasion. The air was thick with cold rivalry and a promise of violence via violins. But peace was made when special guest Professor Dex charmed the crowd with a presentation of his moving picture show.
At last the Widow’s Bane took the stage, a band of grinning ghouls, hunched over their instruments with the sinister intention of making the crowd dance to death. They opened with the haunting zombie moans of “
I couldn’t help but notice that most of their songs had to do with the evils of women. Not surprising, considering the entire band met their gruesome demise at the hands of the fairer sex. From the danceable “Sick to Me Gullet”, in which Mortimer proclaims, “I’d rather be shot than fall in love twice”, to the doo-wop ballad of peeping tom, these zombies have been unlucky in love, even in the afterlife.
While dancing to their newest old song, “The Ballad of Dead-Eye Daryl”, I had a few words with Aaron De Rose, the band’s photographer and self-proclaimed executive roadie. “When I met Mortimer, he had his guitar and I asked him to play me a song. He played the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard. I asked who wrote it, and he said, ‘I did. I got hundreds more,’” De Rose said. The band recorded their first CD in the back of the Gypsy Jewel, a store owned by Mortimer’s mother-in-law, but according to De Rose they now have a posh new studio.
Rutherford Belleview and Franklin McKane warm up on Pearl St. Photo credit: Jess d'Arbonne.
After getting nothing but the official in-character Widow’s Bane story all night, I took a chance and asked De Rose for an insider’s POV on the musical zombie spectacle. “The zombie stuff is all about true artistic expression,” he explained. “It’s going back to when music was the total package: the persona, the backstory, the costume, the lyrics. You can’t have Widow’s Bane without Mortimer Leech and a bunch of zombies. It doesn’t work otherwise.” David Bowie had Ziggy Stardust, Bono had Mr. MacPhisto. The Widow’s Bane puts all other musical personas to shame.
During the show I came upon Margot Atkinson and Jonathon Finch, who had first seen the Widow’s Bane perform at the 2009 Denver Zombie Crawl in October. “They put on such a great show,” Atkinson said. “They’re so different, which is really hard to find with all the cookie-cutter bands out there.” These two fans plan on following the Widow’s Bane to the ends of the Earth… or at least to their next show
As the evening came to a close, the Widow’s Bane called up the Dovekins for one more musical stand-off in the middle of the crowd. When it was all over, I was sorry to see those undead charmers put their instruments aside and crawl back to the gutter from whence they came. These gentleman zombies have truly brought roots music to life. Though old and decaying, the Widow’s Bane has one of the freshest live sounds I’ve heard in awhile. They’re inventive, they’re talented (most of the band sang and played at least two instruments), and the band’s rich story pulls the whole act together for a jaw-dropping live performance.
If you missed the Widow’s Bane this weekend, shame on you. But you’ll have a chance to redeem yourself on November 13th, 9PM, at Bender’s Tavern in Denver, where they’ll be playing with guests the Legendary River Drifters.
*The band tries to dress a little more lively for gigs at birthday parties.
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