Saint Vitus, Dixie Witch and The Roller at Red 7 [Show Preview]

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Saint Vitus, Dixie Witch and The Roller
Saturday, August 20
Red 7 (611 E. 7th St.)
$10-15, 9pm, All Ages
[info] | [tickets]

Red 7 will be blowing it out in a very heavy way on Saturday night. They’re bringing the legendary Saint Vitus back to town, staging Dixie Witch as anticipation builds for their forthcoming release, and hosting the very last show ever for The Roller. If you’re looking for a raucous metal party this weekend, Red 7’s got your ticket.

Any account of the origins of doom metal would be remiss to overlook Saint Vitus. The original members were cutting their teeth together in the late ‘70s, and then formed as Saint Vitus in 1980. At a time when mainstream metal was dominated by campy classics and thrash was just being realized, Saint Vitus was playing outside the box, and doing so very well. Their skilled uniqueness led to them to become (probably) the first metal band to be signed by Greg Ginn at SST Records, the home of Black Flag, The Minutemen, Hüsker Dü and other pioneering but certainly non-metal bands. During the past decade, SST (now based just up the road in Taylor, TX y’all) reissued much of Saint Vitus’s back catalog, the band reformed in their original lineup and signed to one of metal’s most prominent labels, Southern Lord. Sadly, original drummer Armando Acosta passed away last year. Henry Vasquez of hard southern rockers Blood of the Sun is rounding-out the Saint Vitus lineup.

Local metal power trio Dixie Witch has been at it for about a decade now, and is set to release a new album later in 2011. If their previous releases are any indication of what’s to come, this should be a blistering, high-energy album from this flag-ship Smallstone Recordings band. They’re guaranteed to get the party rolling before Saint Vitus takes the stage.

Finally and very significantly, this is also the last time Austinites, The Roller, will gnash and crush the hell out of a club in this or any other city. They’ve had a good run, and have been solid all along, including at their very first Red 7 performance. There couldn’t be a better way to for these guys to say farewell than to pop the cork on this bad-ass show.

Saint Vitus: [Southern Lord] [Myspace]
Dixie Witch: [Smallstone] [Myspace]
The Roller: [Myspace]