Murder By Death Doesn’t Miss Twice
Band and Fans Unite at Annual Stanley Shows
by Adam Perry
Live music at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park is an institution. Colorado newcomers, and there are many more every day, probably think it’s always been that way, but rock concerts at the Stanley really date back to just 2014, when the gothic-Americana band Murder By Death began its 11-year run at the purportedly haunted hotel. The band’s cult following comes from all over the United States, and even overseas, to fill the Stanley’s music hall every January (2021’s edition took place in August, and outside) to raise hell, and restless spirits, and this year was even more memorable than usual.
Murder By Death originally played the Stanley (which inspired Stephen King’s The Shining) one January weekend a year, but the success of the shows and the year-round music events that’ve popped up in their wake helped ballooned Murder By Death’s annual Estes Park residency to five gigs over two weekends. Part of the charm is that singer-songwriter Adam Turla and company are known to hang in the hotel whiskey bar after each concert, but this year was different—starting with Friday night.
For me, personally, Friday night started out strangely because it was the first time in my nine years attending Murder By Death’s Stanley shows that I missed two things—the first song (the romantic “Foxglove”) and being in photographer Lisa Siciliano’s annual Shining-style ballroom photo. My partner, Mikayla, made us late getting her amazing 1920’s-style outfit all ready, but she looked so beautiful, and we had so much fun together, that it was worth it.
It was Mikayla’s fourth year seeing Murder By Death at the Stanley with me, and she was surprised how many times during the concert, and the next morning, I commented that the band was better than ever. I thought the searing version of “Straight at the Sun,” a hard-rocker from the group’s 2012 masterpiece Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon, was the highlight of a 22-song set that had something for everyone, but the band was just on all night.
Murder By Death almost always fits in the punky early-era song “Brother” and the hard-charging “Comin’ Home,” two songs that can get its devoted audience singing and stomping alone, sometimes even moshing, but I was impressed with how Friday night included a lot of the best songs from the band’s 20-plus years together, from the cinematic poetry of “Last Night on Earth” (from 2018’s The Other Shore) and the slow-burning fan-favorite “Riders” (from 2022’s Spell/Bound) to the 20-year-old rarity “A Master’s In Reverse Psychology.”
The deep-voiced Turla even had a blast leading a jubilant, hilarious extended version of the “secret” song “Pizza Party (at Gloria Estefan’s House)” complete with a baritone-sax solo. The night was also enhanced by impressive video projection, with psychedelic lights and fitting clips from movies, that was a major change from Murder By Death’s spartan, or non-existent, light show for many years at the Stanley.
The big surprise to me, though, was that my girlfriend and I didn’t see Turla in the whiskey bar after the Friday show. I thought something must be wrong, but then honestly I drank too much to dwell on it. The next day, however, the band announced on social media that for the first time in its 11-year run at the Stanley there would be no Murder By Death show as scheduled; Turla was sick, and couldn’t possibly play.
Amazingly, Turla’s bandmates saved the day on Saturday night, throwing a party in the Stanley’s concert hall including impromptu alternate performances of Murder By Death songs and all kinds of inspiring revelry.
Turla took to social media Sunday morning to show his thanks, writing “Last night was so moving. In my medicated haze I wept with gratitude for this community and the kind people that I have been so lucky to be surrounded by.”
With Turla back on stage, Murder By Death threw in a “trial mini-show” early Sunday afternoon and then proceeded as usual, just not with a typically sprawling set, on Sunday night for its 43rd show overall at the Stanley.
Murder By Death’s music has been a huge part of my life since I first saw them at the Stanley in 2015, and conducted my first of a half-dozen interviews with Turla over the years. “No Oath, No Spell,” in particular, is a song I sing to nobody at all while riding my bike in the Rocky Mountains every summer, and I even have those words tattooed on my right arm. The Indiana-born band, which today finds its bandmembers living in various parts of the U.S., has a legacy that’s about so much more than incredible songs and shows, though. The way fans dress up for the Stanley shows, befriend each other in the hotel before and after each gig, keep in touch throughout the year, and even visit the Italian restaurant (Pizza Lupo) Turla and wife/bandmate Sarah Balliet own and operate in Louisville, Kentucky, embodies songs like “I Came Around” in a big way.
At one point on Friday night, I locked eyes with a guy I’d never met and high-fived as we sang along to “Brother,” and after the show Mikayla and I found it totally natural to end our night at the hotel bar taking a group selfie with two couples who traveled from Montana for the shows. It makes total sense that a group of fans so connected to the band, the songs, and each other would support Turla so fervently through his illness.
I’ll never hear his lyric “You must’ve been doing something right to move the company you kept” the same way after this weekend.
Adam Perry 