The last time Murder by Death played in Anchorage, in April 2005, it made an impression.
"People still talk about those shows six years later," said J.R. Zufelt, operations manager for Alaska Integrated Media, who was the program director for University of Alaska Anchorage radio station KRUA at the time.
"The ones that didn't make it are still kicking themselves for not," he said.
The band had been booked as part of the KRUA Presents concert series, and the two shows at UAA were so well attended Zufelt joked that, had the fire marshal arrived, he would have been concerned.
A combination of intense story-line lyrics and dramatic and engaging performances, the band wowed Zufelt and the rest of the crowd those nights, something that almost surprised guitarist and lead singer Adam Turla.
"My first thought was 'Oh my god, we are such a better band now,' " said Turla with a laugh.
Whether Turla's reaction was that of any artist evaluating his or her early work or the inevitability of the polishing effect that playing nearly 1,300 shows has is debatable. Turla said that if you spend 200 days on the road, you have an idea of how much they value their live performance.
"It's kinda the whole thing to us," he said.
The passion on stage has helped spread the band's name for the past 11 years, building the group's reputation little by little. Turla hinted at having pride in the fact that the band has come up slowly, earning it. And while Turla and Zufelt might not agree on how well the band performed those April nights in 2005, they can both agree the band gives all it has to the show -- and that everyone falls in love with Sarah Balliet, the band's cello player.
"It's funny. I posted some pictures of her today (on the band's Facebook page)," Turla said. "Within one minute there were 60 likes and 15 comments."
Turla described Balliet's performance as passionate but uninterested in getting attention or in throwing herself at the audience.
"She is just in her own world," he said.
The same can be said for the rest of the band. The Bloomington, Ind.,-based quintet's members want people to like them but not enough to move to a bigger city. It isn't enough to get them to switch out their limitedly hooky, dark and cinematic alt-folk for the indie pop that races up the charts. When it's brought up that the band's last album, "Good Morning, Magpie," broke the Billboard 200, Turla's reaction was the phone-interview equivalent of an eye roll.
"I would really rather have a show where people show up than any type of award," he said.
It could be false modesty, but in an era where people are less likely to buy a whole album than a single off iTunes, the concept albums that the band continues to be attracted to are evidence of the band's sincerity. Turla recognizes the risk of focusing on cohesive albums instead of singles but said the risk is only if you are just concerned with sales.
Turla has been back to the state since those April shows to camp on the Kenai River, and he has an affinity for the outdoors, having written most of their last album on a two-week solo trip through the Great Smoky Mountains. The group's albums have included stories about zombies and the Devil attacking a small Mexican town, while Western references loom over several albums.
It became obvious why he has always wanted to return to Alaska, and his band will trek through Talkeetna, Denali and McCarthy in addition to its Anchorage and Fairbanks shows.
Paul Flahive
Daily News correspondent