Greek-mythology geeks would assume that means he’s a god immune to the Gorgon’s petrifying gaze, but music nerds know a more modern — and less terrifying — version of Medusa, an obscure 1970s psych group from Chicago.
While he was looking to break into the Denver scene, a nineteen-year-old Wentworth was able to team up with longtime Medusa guitarists Gary and Donna F. Brown. The couple was living in Broomfield at the time and decided to bring the proto-metal band back from the dead after younger audiences rediscovered Medusa. At the same time, other doom pioneers were experiencing a similar second life, such as Coven and Pentagram (aka the band that's currently going viral, thanks to frontman Bobby Liebling's stoic stage presence).
Wentworth's year-plus performing with Medusa, during which Donna held down the Hammond Organ, included a Midwest run that ended with a Chicago show including original singer Peter Basaraba, so it’s pretty cool that he’s able to say that the Medusa was his first band. “That’s how I got into the music scene playing shows,” Wentworth explains.
While Medusa essentially turned to stone shortly after, Wentworth quickly pivoted to forming his own band, Love Gang, in 2015 with organist Leo Muñoz. “He came to one of the Medusa shows,” Wentworth says. “We have a lot in common musically. We started jamming together, and naturally, a band formed out of that.”
Since then, Love Gang — which currently comprises Leo’s brother Luigi Muñoz on bass and recently recruited drummer Xavier Cruz — signed with European label Heavy Psych Sounds and put out two albums, including its 2023 sophomore effort, Meanstreak.
Now, Love Gang is hoping to get back over to Europe for a summer tour...but it needs some help. So the freewheeling four-piece is hosting a fundraiser of sorts on Friday, March 21, at the hi-dive with local acts Boot Gun and Cryptic Witch. All ticket and merch sales will go toward travel expenses.
The only tour dates that have been announced so far are June 13 and 14 for the Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Switzerland, but Love Gang hopes to book stops in Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic, among other central Europe countries. But there are no plans to visit the lost island of Sarpedon, where Medusa and her sisters were rumored to live.
Kam Wentworth got his start in music with OG psych rock group Medusa.
Courtesy Pillow Princess Press
“There’s definitely a big scene out there for this kind of music, if anything more so than out here for underground rock. There are tons of big festivals out there,” says Wentworth, who also plays in Denver Motörhead tribute band Fast ‘n Loöse. “We played SonicBlast [an annual rock festival in Portugal] on our first European tour. They get a lot of U.S. bands. They really like American rock out there. It’s kind of like out here — whenever a band from Europe comes, everybody wants to go and see them because they don’t come out here all that often.”
While Love Gang might be an American darling over there, the group is also a hometown hero, playing out locally as much as possible armed with such bangers as “Deathride” and “Meanstreak.” The retro rock sound would fit perfectly on a bill with, say, Medusa, and leave you with a different kind of stupefying stare.
With Cruz coming on as a drummer just this year, Wentworth is digging the new-look lineup and teases what’s next. There are even some fresh songs that Love Gang plans to share live during the hi-dive show, which is also Cruz’s first concert with the band.
“You know, after ten years, sometimes you question it. ‘Should I still do this? Is it worth continuing to try to make this band happen?’” he admits. “Now it feels like we have some new energy and hopefully that will come out in the next album.”
“I feel good about this lineup we got now. It just has a good feeling. Everybody gets along really well,” Wentworth concludes, “so hopefully people will come out and buy tickets and merch.”
Love Gang, with Boot Gun and Cryptic Witch, 8 p.m. Friday, March 21, hi-dive, 7 South Broadway. Tickets are $19.
