The Strumbellas
Perseverance and catchiness seems to be paying dividends for this poppy folk group as their Horseshoe show was sold out well in advance and the capacity crowd was giddy to be there. After blistering through a new and an old number they stopped to express their gratitude for the first of many times on the night. It's great to have new material to sing along to! Also new was the addition of a trumpet player on a few songs off the top and again later on when he was complimented for dressing so well, including (despite?) his red bandana. Otherwise the six-crew were blazing as usual; Izzy with her snappy red cowgirl shirt, Dave and his custom mountain sunrise/disco ball sweater and Simon barely covered by his vest and sagging pants. He pointed out "it's weird having people sing your songs - good weird - like making out with your mother in the room," this with his mother in the room. Another interesting remark was about an apparent band email that had admonished him for bringing people up on stage, asking for shots and arriving drunk. None of which occurred as he appeared to adhere to the requests and the show did not suffer for it. Altogether it was pretty great as they hammered out faves, even including a slow jam. After an hour they abandoned the stage only to return after an extended roar from the audience. In encore they played the grin-inducing Float On ("we wrote that one" Simon cracked) before bringing it all down with Pistol. Sad (and exciting) to think that sweaty days at crummy bars could soon be behind them.
Devin Cuddy Band
The Devin Cuddy Band were actually more country than I remembered. This didn't mean that they weren't any good just that it wasn't speaking much to me. Devin played his piano (keyboard) and the rest of the crew held it down but it's a genre I don't claim to have much authority reviewing. Who am I kidding? I don't have any right reviewing any music.
