The Twang Bastards

So it’s a Saturday night and I was out with my brothers playing archery tag, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to shoot my brothers with arrows.  Finally I can get revenge on them without getting into trouble from my parents.  Any way after we were done flinging arrows at each other (and realizing how out of shape some of us are) I mentioned there was a country band performing down the street at the bar that I was going to check out.  After the usual comments were thrown around (yes I know I stand out in a country audience like computer geek trying out for football, something doesn’t look right)

So now there’s three of us sitting right in front of the stage (me with long hair, one brother who is taller and muscular, and another brother who’s already half in the bag from pre-drinking.) and I look around and see the band I was told about is no longer playing this night.  So instead we are going to be entertained by a group called The Twang Bastards, except for this night they’re The Twang Bastards +1, they’ve added a second guitarist this night.  Well since we’re here and I have my camera, lets order some beverages and have a listen.

Now the bar posted a country artist all week so the patrons are expecting a certain style of music tonight and judging from the name of them I was expecting a little twang in the sound myself.  So the band starts playing and our steady supply from the bar started to flow (all of my experiences with country music involves beer, normally quite a bit of it too), and the band starts with a country song.  We start to chat amongst ourselves using the band as some background noise.  Then I hear them start “Carry on my wayword son…” and Supernatural came to mind followed by “will they pull it off???”  With a slight change of key they did and they had fun while playing it also.  No sign of struggling with the higher parts or holding notes when needed.

Now they have our attention.  They followed with a cover from The Tragically Hip, Bob Seger, a little BTO, and I swear every bar band I’ve seen feels like they have to do a cover of Cream’s Crossroads.  They kept the mood light, and played the songs right.  If they needed to change a key for the singer they did or they had somebody else in the band sing that song.  Even their commentary between songs was entertaining for the crowd.  Normally I wouldn’t mention a generic bar band on this blog but I feel like these guys made themselves stand out.  Especially with their bluesy rendition of “No Diggity” which caught me by surprise.  Think about it, a band named Twang Bastards playing No Diggity.  You’ll have to see them play it to believe it.  That and I think we only heard two country songs the whole time we were there.