Is there anything better for starting off a bright and sunny weekend than a grand, gloomy dirge that name-checks crack and anal sex? Hell no, we say.

Gothic cabaret/dark Americana band Bat Country called it a noirishly-overcast day recently, but not before putting out a final release, Love’s the Only Engine of Survival. It’s a richly-textured, black-clad little jewel, even beyond the poignant story of its gestation (Bat Country bassist “Meshugunah” Joe Albanese perished in the Cafe Racer shootings of 2012).

Alongside live renditions of their wonderfully macabre originals, BC let their Leonard Cohen flag fly high with this cover of Cohen’s “The Future.”  It brought down the house at Columbia City Theater, and like their recorded output, it captured their rare, magical confluence of spooky theatricality and last-call singalong warmth to a black lace-wearing T. Sorry to see you go, guys.