Tight but loose, crisp but a little sawtoothed, The Devil's Moses combines tasty riff-rock, never-beaten-to-death melodies and orc-like throat-ripper screams to achieve a circus of debaucherous-sounding organized chaos. Evoking the sounds of chunk-a-chunk pioneers like Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Bleach-era Nirvana and even (dare I say it?) the once-mighty Big Ugly Wrench, the Valley five-piece has the air of the "7th Plane of Hell House Band" or some such steady gig.
The words are typically a bit NC-17, especially in "The Prison Song," which features lyrical gems like "Lifting weights/getting raped/make a mean license plate," but when taken as a whole are fairly accurate depictions of the situations they describe. The guitars are fierce, and the rhythms sometimes lurch arbitrarily from one tempo/groove to another, but it's all done with skill, intent and, most important, attitude. More rock, please.
Dec. 27, $5, 10 p.m., The Waterfront Tavern, 920 Main St., Holyoke, (413) 532-2292.
