I feel like folk shows are getting a bad rap. It takes an extra push to convince my friends that they really can be fun and worthwhile because in their minds these shows are exclusively comprised of dads and their banjos. Of course, cialis vialis 40mg it certainly didn’t used to be that way–think Woodstock or the Last Waltz. Somewhere along the line, patient unhealthy it seems there was a paradigmatic role reversal and gradually nobody thought folk music was cool or exciting anymore. But anyone at the Sinclair on Friday night can say with conviction that those dupes are missing out. The show made for a wild night; we saw three different bands play more than three hours of music and despite all those bands and all those hours we didn’t see a single dad play the banjo.
A 5 piece group from New Orleans, viagra 40mg pilule The Deslondes (formerly Tumbleweeds), kicked off the night just after nine. They reminded me of railroads and dirty gasoline, but refer to themselves, perhaps more competently, as a “country-soul swamp-boogie band.” Sam Doores and Riley Downing were responsible for most of the singing and make for a perfectly binary performance. Versatility stems from the juxtaposition of Sam the longhaired, cowboy hat wearing southerner and Riley the rugged, overall and trucker hat wearing Midwesterner. The former felt prominently in in “Depression Blues,” the latter in “Throw another Cap in the Fire.” And if anyone is curious as to what I mean when I describe The Deslondes’ railroad-esque sentiment, check out “I Got Found.” By the end of their set, the sold out Sinclair was nearly full–and I should add, parenthetically, that these shows have that ideal crowded-but-not-packed distribution that keeps the place rowdy without turning us into sardines.
Alyanda Lee of Hurray for the Riff Raff came on next and played a solo “Old San Francisco Bay Blues” and “Blue Ridge Mountains” before the rest of her band joined her on stage. Recently Riff Raff has been prolific, putting out a record in each of the last three years, most recently with Look Out Mama in 2012. They don’t appear to be barring this trend anytime soon as they came to the Sinclair with a lot of new and exciting stuff, ostensibly gearing up for another release. After playing a couple of new tunes and the title track from their last album, they called a friend, Sam Doore, on stage and the night took a turn.
After Sam Doore collaborated with them for “There’s a Crash on the Highway,” we saw different combinations of all three groups throughout the evening and into the morning. There’s a special camaraderie between these first two bands since they met in New Orleans, the Tumbleweeds actually serving as Riff Raff’s backing band for a time before Riley joined. They played up tempo John Prine, Beatles, and Ronettes inspired jams until they walked off as the Johnny Cash playlist came on between sets. Because we knew the goodbye was only temporary as we could expect to see it all in the set ahead, the crowd never quieted and the party went on.
NYC based Spirit Family Reunion officially hit the scene in 2012 with their first album, No Separation, but had been unofficially performing throughout public pedestrian life in subways and on street corners for years. And that sound still resonates. They played a festive and outdoorsy kind of show, enhanced by the rustic barnlike venue, that had everyone swinging their hips and stomping their feet. They’re one of those bands that has to be experienced live to wholly appreciate their music and witness it in its truest form. Folk shows, and particularly in Spirit Family’s case, aren’t just replications of their studio recordings—they are adaptive performances that have an intangible energy that give life to their work.
This energy was certainly felt on Friday. It was like that instant when you flip your speakers from mono to stereo and at once sound is loud and clear, as if suddenly released from some digital imprisonment. The sound was crisp and vibrant; Spirit family playing memorable performances of “Leave Your Troubles at the Gate” and “Wings” and of course were joined by combinations of artists from both of the preceding bands that made the show feel more like a family reunion than we even anticipated. On my way home, after a night full of dancing and hollering, I felt that if I ever needed to defend the immutability of unruly folk shows, I know exactly which bands I can point to.
