Kentucky Knife Fight brings its tour to Cape next week

They've played Cape Girardeau hot spots before, and if past shows are any indication, Kentucky Knife Fight is set to rattle Pitters Bar and Lounge to the dregs next Aug. 30.

"We've always had a really great response in Cape Girardeau," guitarist Curt Brewer said. "We've got a lot of friends in Cape Girardeau."

Although the current tour has taken the St. Louis indie darlings all around the country, Brewer always looks forward to playing in Cape. It feels like home.

A Perryville, Missouri, native, Brewer bought his first guitar at Shivelbines -- a Lake Placid-blue 1997 Fender Stratocaster.

"This is as much of a homecoming show as there is for me," Brewer said. "And it's a chance to show people this band; this thing that we're really proud of."

Decadently sinister and riotously fun, Kentucky Knife Fight wooed St. Louis tastemakers with a jagged blend of roots-heavy rock and backwoods twang, all thoroughly distorted by a festering punk bent. The resulting sound is captivating; rave reviews clamor to articulate it.

"Whenever someone asks what our band plays, we just say rock and roll," Brewer said. "But there is an aggressiveness to our sound. It's a mixture with rougher rock, blues rock and a rootsy Americana element, too."

Dubbed "Best Local Band" by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, they also were tapped to put the Lou in Loufest last September, being one of only two local acts to play the festival.

Touring to promote their new album and 7-inch vinyl "Hush Hush," next week's show will feature some of the new material. Nobody is complaining.

Past albums such as "The Wolf Crept, The Children Slept" established a more straightforward rock feel. It's where fans discovered the meanness in frontman Jason Holler's vocal style.

"There are certain songs, some off ‘The Wolf Crept, The Children Slept,' that would be difficult to remove from a show because that's the foundation for a lot of our music," Brewer said. "But the tour is about the new album, and of the 10 songs that are on it, we probably play seven of them every show."

The new album channels the Kentucky Knife Fight fans know and love through a glass, darkly. Very darkly.

"Hush Hush" infuses the band's characteristic punk twang with stark, brooding imagery; it's a richly textured display of what they've termed the "hillbilly noir" aesthetic.

Holler's crooked drawl is replaced by a hard-grinding snarl for most of the album. Dripping with menace, he howls alternately about love and violence from deep within a bramble of banjo and distorted slide guitar.

Opening for Kentucky Knife Fight are local rockers BEEF, adding a heavy dash of rowdy grunge-country to the mix.

"We're really excited for that show," BEEF guitarist Jamie Gooch said. "It's going to be a great night."

Tickets are available at Pitters Bar and Lounge; $7 for ages 21 and older, $12 for those younger than 21. The show starts at 9 p.m.

traef@semissourian.com

Pertinent address:

813 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO