But just keep telling yourself, ‘It’s only a rock show, it’s only a rock show’. Although it may look and sound for all the world like the prelude to a Manson family slaying, it’s just the psycho-dramatic sleight of hand the locals call Liquor Tricks, working out a few kinks in their shattered nervous systems.

The Trick-sters carry with them a pedigree of super group proportions, an elite task force of highly specialized sonic assassins. The regally named former Ambulance Driver Terence Burke is he who screams. The omnipresent wild-eyed drummer Nick Z, a Cracktorcher and Coke Dealer by trade, is on deck, as is quirky lounge king , synth abuser, and fellow blow peddler, Glenn Smith. Boston rock’s version of Romeo and Juliet, or at least Sid and Nancy, Marc Schleicher and Kate McLaughlin play the guitar and bass, respectively. Individually, they comprise the key components of half a dozen of Boston’s most fuck-worthy bands. Collectively, they are a rock and roll gang war, a sinister menace, like clockwork vampires wound too tightly and set loose in perpetual midnight.

Not that you see much evidence of the beast within in less formal surroundings. As is typical when taking a meeting with the cast of a Marc S production, I find myself in a noisy bar with chesty waitresses and a jukebox full of power ballads. Long live the Double Cheeseburger King. With the exception of a straggling Nick, the gang’s all here, swilling bottles of mid-priced beer, evidently happy to be alive. Happy? Liquor Tricks?

"I know a few liquor tricks, but none I really want to talk about in front of Marc", Kate jokes, smiling at her boyfriend. "My trick is how I try to keep Kate away from the bar", Marc counters. Although I hardly expected the showing of scars and weeping, Liquor Tricks are quickly blowing the Cop Shoot Cop shoot audience murder alley allure of their live spectacle. "We’re not confrontational people at all", Terence tells me when I offer up the notion that they might be. "We’re actually fun loving people." Fun loving and nerve shredding. "I think if it’s confrontational at all, it’s an inner confrontation", Glenn offers." But we’re no way in odds with the people that we’re playing for. I think it’s the lyrics that might be confrontational. That and my inability to the play the keyboards properly." Terence elaborates. "Most of the motivation that I feel, is like, ‘life really sucks’, so people eat chocolate cake or drink liquor or shoot heroin to get away from it all. I’d put screaming at the top of my lungs in that category. It’s a means of escape."

The talk turns to the ironically named "Comfort", Liquor Tricks’ new record. Picture the Stooges ‘LA Blues’ gone pitch black. "It’s not like it’s not accessible", Nick explains as he joins us at the table. "We just mixed a lot of parts that didn’t necessarily go together. Some of the songs have 3 or 4 different bass lines mixed together. One song we actually had two different mixes, and we just ran them together." Such wild experimentation may have something to do with the disciplined recording process Liquor Tricks put themselves through. Turns out, the band has no problem living up to their name. "We drank over 2oo beers in two and a half days." Nick reports. "I hope my mother doesn’t find out about it", Kate laughs. "We all passed out, and Glenn started making all these decisions about the mixes. We woke up and listened to them, and we were like, ‘what the fuck is this?’ But that’s how I think about making music, it’s like, ‘Wheeee!’, here we go!"

Super-producer Andrew Schneider was also on hand for the recording of ‘Comfort’. "He’s the 6^th member of Liquor Tricks", Marc says. "He had a lot of input, got us to try a lot of different things. He even helped us name some of the songs. He helped a lot with this record." Glenn agrees. "That’s what was fun about working with Andrew, we had all these ideas, and we at least gave them a shot. I think that’s why there’s things on the record that are so sonically cool, we weren’t too busy watching the clock." ‘Comfort’ ultimately took 6 months to complete. It may take much longer for public to recover from it’s sonic onslaught. I ask the band if they think that, somewhere in it’s deep dark grooves, there’s a hit single. "No." Kate emphatically states. "’Discomfort’ is like, 7 minutes long", Marc says, "and that’s the one I gave to radio, like ‘Here you go!’ Sometimes I’ll hear people playing it, and they’ll fade it too quick, and they’ll be like, ‘aww, it’s not over yet!’ and bring it back up."

That’s a good indication of what Liquor Tricks is all about. Lush but confounding, the agony and the ecstasy lying side by side like satisfied lovers. "It’s about love and life sucking", as Terrance so succinctly puts it.

I’m still searching for the dark side of it all, though. "Well", Marc offers, " Kate threatened to kill us all while we were recording." "No I didn’t!" She protests. Then, mulling it over, she says, "Yeah, maybe I did." See? I told you they were dangerous. http://www.space-echo.com/liquortricks.htm