Local four-piece the Devil Himself describe themselves as the “Rodney Dangerfields of metal” in their band bio. Some bands get no respect.
“We never get any recognition,” says singer/guitarist Dave Christensen. “We’ve been around for nine years in July—and we were hitting it really hard in the beginning. I guess that’s never why we did it though. It’s always been about having fun with each other.”
The band formed nonchalantly over a poker game between Christensen, Dan Burnham, and Jason Goldberg. Current bassist Jared Nielsen joined years later. They play with a lot of energy, but despite their name, it’s not exactly metal so much as moody, dark heavy rock in the vein of Tool and Deftones.
“I think it misleads people,” Christensen says of the name. “They think deathcore, or something crazy, super fast and growling. I’ve always considered it hard rock,”.
The name is actually a reference to an old French horror film, Les Diaboliques, which Goldberg suggested to the rest of the group. “When he said it, I was like, ‘yeah I’m not against that.’ Once you find a name that everybody’s not against, you have to go with it,” says Christensen.
As atmospheric as the songs end up, the group’s songwriting process usually starts with the guitar riffs, and builds from there. Christensen writes all the lyrics, which are personal and introspective, as opposed to anything dealing with say, the devil.
“It’s definitely an outlet to talk about all kinds of things that I think about. There’s hidden meaning in it sometimes. Sometimes it’s pretty straightforward. If that’s introspective, that’s how I do that,” Christensen says.
INFO: 9 p.m. Friday, May 1. Don Quixote’s 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $7. 603-2294.
