Savage Republic, Headless Lizzy & Her Icebox Pussy, Alaric, DJs Death Boy & Mina

Fri., September 17, 8:00pm

Oakland Metro Operahouse

Price: $8 Advance, $10, all ages

Revisiting the Hinterlands

By John Graham

Ever since Savage Republic's Ethan Port and Thom Fuhrmann took the leadership reins from founder Bruce Licher — don't worry, it was a bloodless coup — they've tried to restart the post-punk and tribal-industrial fires that Licher was seemingly content to leave drifting like smoke in a dustblown desert sirocco. (Listen to Licher's own project, Scenic, for evidence of his more soundtrack-y and ambient approach these days.) Savage Republic's anachronistically-titled 2007 comeback album, 1938, and subsequent tour showed these L.A../S.F. art rockers can still pound out the battering oil-barrel percussion that got the original 1980s lineup mentioned in the same breath as Test Dept. or Einstürzende Neubauten. They certainly haven't settled into pensive suburban balladry or anything. But it's the group's hypnotic, custom-tuned, sand-surfing guitar exoticism that gives SR 2.0 whatever validity it may have in the 21st Century: listening to Savage Republic's expansive instrumental landscapes, you can hear their influence on modern post-rock icons like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai, and Red Sparowes. Despite this lineage, however, no one sounds quite like Savage Republic. And live performances are nearly as rare as Saharan glaciers, so this weekend's shows — Friday at the Oakland Metro Operahouse (8 p.m., $10, all ages) and Saturday at theHemlock Tavern (9:30 p.m., $8, 21+) — offer uncommon opportunities to watch these veterans explore their trademark musical wilderness.

Sep. 15-17, 2011 - Savage Republic East Coast Tour - NYC, D.C., PHILI

Aug. 13, 2011 - Savage Republic play downtown L.A. at the Blue Star Cafe - A night under the stars

Savage Republic w/ Headless Lizzy & Her Icebox Pussy + Alaric

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Savage Republic, Headless Lizzy & Her Icebox Pussy, Alaric, DJs Death Boy & Mina

Revisiting the Hinterlands