Bad Luck City

Dameon Merkl is a dangerously funny man with a penchant for inspired self-deprecation and Bukowski-esque aphorisms. Get him behind the mike with his band, however, and he's as menacing and spooky as a walk through Lafayette Cemetery on a moonless summer night. Led by Merkl, Bad Luck City -- made up of percussionist Andrew Warner, guitarists Gregor Kammerer and Joshua Perry, bassist Yassit Arocho and violinist Kelly O'Dea -- crafts lurid tales of lost souls hitting rock bottom in search of redemptive truth, only to realize that such a thing is tantalizingly out of reach. There's an inherent dark, fiery intensity to the music of Bad Luck City (due at the Bluebird Theater this Friday, August 11) that conjures images of traipsing through the worst dive bars imaginable late at night. If a deeply guttural Tom Waits was backed by Cop Shoot Cop, it might sound something like this.