Atlanta trio Warsaw Clinic serves up brutal blues and quality rock and roll

On City Lights’ series “Speaking of Music,” local musicians share work and stories in their own voices. This installment features Atlanta-based blues rock trio the Warsaw Clinic.

Drummer Austin Robb and bassist Chris Parker offered the band’s elevator pitch: “Your local Atlanta brutal blues band serving you the finest quality rock and roll since 2015.” Joined by lead vocalist Eli Browder, the band revives a classic, unrestrained hard rock roadhouse blues sound, hearkening to ZZ Top and Led Zeppelin, with the shuffled backbeats of Bo Diddley. 

The locked-in confidence of the Warsaw Clinic’s sound shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering that the founding friends played together in their local church band as kids. With all three born and raised in the Atlanta metro area, Robb considers their Southern-steeped history a key to the music as it’s evolved. “The state of Georgia has a pretty rich rock ‘n roll history, especially Southern rock, with the Allman Brothers being from Macon,” Robb said. “We have, like I said, brutal blues. It’s a little bit of your standard rock ‘n roll. Make it just a little bit heavier and more angry, and you’ve got what we are.”