The Afghan Whigs allowed us to go back in time for a spell | Live Review | September 18 2014 | The Beacham Orlando

by Dainon Moody • September 23, 2014

This is a small hiccup of a review, but I really only have a thing or two to say anyway. Sometimes, less is far, far more.

If you’re planning on going to see The Afghan Whigs anytime in your near future and you’re running late for any reason at all, that’s okay: miss that beginning, but don’t you dare miss the ending. Yes, the band was as passionate as we could expect them to have been, revealing over and over again why they suddenly came out of hiding with a new album and tour so many years after anybody thought they might.

There were still songs to be sung (both new and old) after all, and what they do live, they do far better than so many others touring today. There’s no other way to put this: they just sounded so damn good! The message seemed simple enough, too: if you’re going to do music and do it right, you may as well do it yourselves. And they did, all night long. Solid proof that rock hasn’t died, it was just asleep for a bit.

That ending, though, the one that had them doing The Beatles’ “Getting Better,” you saw that, right? That’s the moment you want to freeze for later. Nobody expected they’d be back to do this all over again and nobody’s sure how long they’ll even be back for. Still, we have a perfect encore to remember, a kind of finale that we can savor. The Afghan Whigs allowed us to go back in time for a spell, an unexpected ride in a time machine, even. Fingers cross, they keep this ride going