Magic City Blues takes us to church and then to Dublin

MCB brought us quite the double header last night featuring The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band and the Young Dubliners.  Bones was packed to the hoots with a mixture of young and old; peppered among the bunch were ample mullets, sleeve tattoos, beards and flat caps.

Rev Peyton, a buttoned up hillbilly with quaffed beard, started out the night right interacting with the crowd  good old call and response, southern baptist style. With a voice i can only describe as country-fried  Jello Biafra, he had the crowd eating out of his guitar picking hands.

Peyton’s sound has one solid foot in blues and the other in country, the mixture is a high energy hoedown. I couldn’t tell if I was at a back yard cookout or a Appalachian back lot sermon. Either way, the spirit took me as it took the rest of the crowd. His highly technical “finger style” lets them forgo a bass player for the Rev’s thumb.  To prove it, he played two songs, Dixie and Yankee Doodle Dandy at the same time on one guitar, mind-blowing.  Another highlight was when he brought out “three string cigar box guitar.”

Breezy Paton accompanied the rev with the most aggressive washboard I have ever seen. She wore special gloves, presumably to protect her hands from her ruckus style.  ”No more of this half assed stuff” said the Rev and Breezy surly followed suit. Her washboard ended in flames during their encore performance.

The Rev’ newest album “Between the Ditches” drops August 7th and you can pre-order  it, HERE.

After The Revs performance, folks switched from Yellowstone Valley Brewing Company’s finest to Guinness to usher in the Young Dubliners. “We are going to play some Irish music allright?” said lead singer Keith Roberts. Lead singer is a bit relative in a good Irish rock band.  In their prime moments, the Young Dubliners sung in unison like they were at a bar chanting pub songs.

The up tempo, ditty-like rock songs had the crowd moving with a mixture of fist pumps and full out jigs.  We had the treat of hearing an untitled track from their up coming album “We the Mighty.”

The crowd was full of joyful bouncy energy. Even I could not resist a brief dance with a young lass. I kept it short as to not embarrass either of us. My style of dancing, (mainly  slamdance/moshing,) doesn’t exactly translate well.

The Young Dubliners played a full set and a total of four encores. They gave Billing all they had and it was glorious. They invited all of us to their next gig at the Irish festival in Missoula.

All and all, an awesome night and a sneak peak at the kind of party in store for us next month at  Magic City Blues.

 

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