Fiftymen! plus s/g: Little Sun (formerly Dry River Caravan)
April 19 (Friday) 8:30 pm - $10 earlybird until March 1, $12 adv, $15 door
"hard-core country with a moonshine chaser"- lucy
Make no mistake: Fiftymen play straight up hardcore country through and through - a world of killing tunes and whiskey blues, trampled hearts and unsettled scores after darkfall. But, of course, it’s not quite as simple as that. Formed from the ashes of Crash 13 in the latter stages of 1999, Fiftymen - J.J. Hardill (vocals), Mark Michaud (guitar) Todd Gibbon (guitar) Jake Bryce (drums), Michael Houston Hanlan (bass) and Keith Snider (banjo, fiddle) - is clearly a band with dusty twang surging through its veins, but whose soul is consumed with the evil power of reckless rock and roll. Breakneck and brokenhearted, the sturdy five-piece churns out a hard luck parade of full blooded hurtin’ tunes that walk the line between jealousy, revenge, faith, guilt and redemption - Merle Haggard’s working man sweat rolling down Joe Strummers back. It’s a scorching sound that’s five feet high and rising-wiry and hungry, but plenty full and ready to fight. It’s two guitars, bass, drums, a voice and menacing Marshalls: pure, honest roots music steeped in traditional country and gut level punk. Scars, graveyards, sin, skeletons, vagabonds, women, wine and song: living large and marking time "on the shady side". Don’t turn your back on Fiftymen - not even for a second.
Steve Baylin.
