Crud Stages a Heavy Homecoming at Las Rosas

If you've ever walked into the shit-stained bathrooms of Churchill’s Pub on a day ending in y, you know there's more to Miami music than EDM and club bangers. South Floridians also enjoy music that doesn’t involve synthetic electronic sounds or industrial rhythms. Hell, many of them go out and make it themselves.

Of the Miami-born-and-bred acts you won’t see performing at Floyd or Electric Pickle, Crud is among the most exciting. Since 2015, the three-piece has been consistently serving up riffs of the heaviest variety, assailing listeners' ears — in the best way possible — with the band's preferred blend of death doom and sludge metal. Crud’s ability to channel pure, unbridled rage will be on full display this Saturday, June 16, when the band hits Las Rosas for its first hometown gig in more than a year. Beyond the exciting prospect of catching the band alongside fellow Miami musical malcontents Shroud Eater, Holly Hunt, and Wrong, Saturday’s show also holds the promise of previewing Crud’s forthcoming new material, the first since 2016’s Resin EP.

“You know that feeling when you're driving down the highway — you don't know if your car's going to stop running because it’s so old and shitty, and then it runs out of gas, you have zero dollars in your bank account, your AAA membership just ended, you're painfully sober, and you're sweating bullets because you don't have A/C in there either? That's what we sound like; that's Crud,” band cofounder and drummer Mariel says.

In addition to being heavy as hell, Crud also happen to be hilarious, even if that doesn’t immediately come across in the band's recorded music. The closing track on Resin is titled “Steve Buscemi’s Eyes,” and their listed interests on Facebook are “tequila,” followed by “beers and joints.” They aren’t kidding, at least when it comes to the first two. In conversation at the Butcher Shop in Wynwood, the bandmates' affability and quickness to crack a joke betrays the sense of dread and sheer aggression that dominates their work. Even the band’s origins are due in part to a shared twisted sense of humor.

“I first met [Crud bassist] Julie at [band guitarist] Kris’ birthday party,” Mariel recounts. “She was making black ketchup, and that's when I knew we were going to be best friends, because I was like, Holy shit, she cares as much about the bullshit-ass details as I do.”

Besides being motivated by recording their as-yet unreleased LP and rehearsing for their next extensive tour, they remain energized — that is to say, perennially pissed off. Asked what they have to be so angry about, they offer no shortage of things from which to choose.

“What are you not angry about?” Mariel asks before Kris mentions having to “pay taxes, put in gas, and go to work.” Thankfully, Julie is thoughtful enough to remind everyone that “our president is a piece of shit.”

Fortunately, Crud has more than just anger to pull from, citing the sense of community that being in a metal band provides, as well as the love from fans, or as they prefer to call them, “friends that support us,” according to Julie.

“That's the only reason why we are where we are now, because of all the friends that we've made over the years,” Mariel says. “The only reason why we're able to even book a tour is because we all have friends somewhere who dig us and want to support what we do.”

Crud. With Wrong, Shroud Eater, and Holly Hunt. 8 p.m. Saturday at Las Rosas, 2898 NW Seventh Ave., Miami; lasrosasbar.com. Admission is free.