Carla Harvey, formerly of Butcher Babies, made her first live appearance with electro-industrial group Lords of Acid on Tuesday, May 27, at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco, California.
When her addition to Lords of Acid was announced in January, Harvey shared her long-standing admiration for the band in a statement: “I had three favorite bands in high school: Guns N’ Roses, Pantera and Lords of Acid. Each one shaped me and uniquely influenced me as an artist. LOA had me hooked from the moment I heard ‘I Sit On Acid’ as a teenager dancing the night away at Detroit’s goth Industrial Haven City Club. My obsession with LOA only grew after I saw Coop’s artwork on the cover of ‘Voodoo U’. Now I get to record an album and go on tour with my industrial heroes! Pinch 16-year-old me! She’ll be the one in the vocal booth. While my new band The Violent Hour is set to release its first single, I’m adding a bucket list item to my resume: Reigning ‘Acid Queen’. Praise the Lords!”
The setlist for her debut performance with Lords of Acid included:
- “Voodoo-U“
- “Do What You Wanna Do“
- “Lover“
- “Drink My Honey“
- “Mister Machoman“
- “The Power Is Mine Coda“
- “(A Treatise On The Practical Methods Whereby One Can) Worship The Lords“
- “Rough Sex/Take Control“
- “Rubber Doll (Opus)“
- “Pu**y(Round)“
- “I Sit On Acid“
- “Scrood Bi U“
- “Let’s Get High“
- “The Crablouse“
Encore:
- “Get Up. Get High“
- “Out Comes The Evil“
In April, Carla Harvey also released “Sick Ones,” the debut single from her new band, The Violent Hour, via Megaforce Records. Harvey, who is also a comic book author, artist, novelist, and holds degrees in mortuary science and thanatology, co-wrote the song with her fiancé, Anthrax/Pantera drummer Charlie Benante. The track also features a guest appearance from Mötley Crüe‘s John 5.
Harvey described the meaning behind the single: “‘Sick Ones’ is a rock ‘n’ roll anthem about cutting the toxic people out of your life. It’s a call of freedom, a fist-to-the-face to anyone who has tried to hold you down, hold you back or dim your light. It was written at a vulnerable time in my life when I was forced to end relationships I thought would last forever.”
Charlie Benante offered his perspective on the song’s sound and the new project: “‘Sick Ones’ has a modernized NWOBHM (New wave of British heavy metal) vibe to it. The riff is very catchy and stays with you like a good riff should. ‘Sick Ones’ is just the tip of the iceberg for this project. Many of the songs we crafted for The Violent Hour are unlike anything Carla has ever done as a vocalist, reflecting different moods and a new beginning. The music flowed out of me because I had this motivation, this drive…it was unstoppable.”
