Interview: Party with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Like it’s 2005 this Saturday

Whatever band first decided to tour on the anniversary of an album started a hell of a trend.

When Black Rebel Motorcycle Club plays The Depot on Saturday (9/27/2025), it’ll be the first tour they’ve ever celebrated a full album in their discography front to back. The band released Howl two decades ago, and this tour allows them and everyone else a long look back. 

I caught up with the California band’s Robert Levon Been just weeks before their tour started and the band was in the middle of practicing when I called. 

Q: When Howl came out, it was kind of a change in your sound, right?

Been: Yeah, it took some people a little while to catch up to it. We were in a chasm between the embrace of the rock and roll scene and whatever the hell we were into when we made this album. It didn’t really have a place yet, and it was really difficult to play it live. It was easier to turn up that distortion pedal and attitude and fake it.

Q: Did the songs on that album have much to do with Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” which you named the album after?

Been: Howl felt like an amalgamation of different influences that were far older than we were. We were giving a nod to the things we loved. It was a love letter to Neil Young and the Beat Poets, Dylan and The Beach Boys. It was all over the map, so we hid behind Ginsberg’s name and stature, and it worked. He was the strange umbrella over it all, and it felt right.

Q: I can hardly believe it’s been 20 years since Howl was released. Since it borrowed from a lot of prior sounds and influences, does it feel even older than that for you?

Been: Yeah. The artists and songs we were using as a blueprint were bulletproof, both artists. They resonate with us after all this time because they’re fucking great. They’ve crafted these songs with more intent and time served. Some of the greatest music ever made has lyrics like “Gabba Gabba Hey” and you can’t top that. But if you want to fuck around with the ghosts of the past, be respectful. We learned not to phone it in, to create songs that could fit in that same world. There are techniques that are cleaner to use then what they did then, all trickery and modern effects, and it affects the outcome. We used similar old school techniques, but we weren’t purists. Sometimes we cheated with more modern methods, but rarely. Still, when we did that, it felt honest. We didn’t entirely know what we were doing.

Q: Are you doing the whole album each date of the anniversary tour?

Been: We’re still trying to learn it all, so we can have that option. I’m about to head out the door to go practice some more. The great irony with this record is that we have yet to learn how to play the whole thing. Maybe we’ll polish a few of the edges and get it down in the next few days. It was really liberating recording it because we felt like no one would buy it, and that they wouldn’t want to hear it live. We made it for us, because we loved it.

When the record did well enough for us to tour on it, it was scary trying to learn how to pull these songs off. The hope is we’ll play the whole album in some iteration, then have a smoke break and follow it with a bunch of loud shit to get the scream out of us.

Q: And I guess the beauty of doing it live is you don’t have to be too exact.

Been: We’re cheating it a bit. Some songs, like “Still Suspicion Holds You Tight,” we’ve only played once. And we never wanted to do it again. It’s like revisiting a past trauma. We’ve hidden it in between other songs that might be faster and more energetic so we don’t lose the crowd. You start losing your nerve when you play a few slow songs in a row, and the entertainer side of you starts to think, “Oh, I’m losing the audience.” It’s about keeping a steady hand at that point.

Q: I like that both the band and audience get to go back in time 20 years when you do this. 

Been: I’m a sucker for challenges, to a really dangerous degree. I’ve got into just as much trouble as good fortune for that. It’s like the Back To The Future Marty McFly “Don’t call me chicken” thing. I’m very much like that. Someone said, “I bet you can’t do this,” and now we are.

Q: How’s the rest of the band feeling about it?

Been: They’re not as crazy as me. They’re more practical. And recording the Howl record was very much the same way, where people had doubts about us pulling it off, going from the rock world to doing this. I knew how good the songs were, though. If all we did was put out an acoustic record with those songs and nothing more, it’d have been enough.

I knew it was really dangerous to do Howl from a career standpoint. We’d lost our drummer. We’d lost our label. The spirit of it all was one big Hail Mary. It may be that I’m used to being that guy who always gets adrenalized from the fear or imminent danger of doing anything, but still: that’s the whole reason this album even exists.

Q: So it was your idea to tackle this in the first place?

Been: Fans over the years suggested it. I thought it sounded like a cool experiment.

Q: And why not do it, right?

Been: Before it happens, before you have to hear how it sounds, yeah, it is a really good idea. The first couple weeks of the tour will be interesting. The Salt Lake City show happens about a week after we start, so you guys might end up with a slightly more fleshed out form. Straight out of the gate, it’s going to be a bit rough around the edges.

Q: That said, I think it’ll be a good show.

Been: I’m a little spooked, I’ll confess, but that always happens before a tour. Doing this was a good idea. As far as what the outcome of it will be, we’ll see.

Q: I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Been: Keep everything crossed.

Want to travel back in time a couple decades? Get your tickets.

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