The Vagabonnies Roadshow invaded Evel Pie last week. The event was sort of like a “Revival Tour Revival,” meaning we had a mix of punk rock musicians – Stacey Dee & Jennie Cotterill (Bad Cop/Bad Cop), Jen Razavi (The Bombpops), Beebs and Her Money Makers, Jen Carlson (Angry Amputees) and Gillian McGhee (Hi Ho) – trading in their distortion pedals for acoustic guitars and banjos.
The weather was a few degrees cooler than Andre 3000 but thanks to opener and promoter Giordano’s warm personality, none of us felt ice cold. Wait, scratch that, it was so cold that I still can’t feel my fingers. Sal kept our minds off the polar winds in the moment with a mixture of original songs and covers of Gaslight Anthem and Old Crow Medicine Show.
Brendan Scholz of Mercy Music followed Sal. Remember when Patton Oswalt made a joke about bands who “rocked so hard that they could change the physical properties of things”? That’s Brendan, who shredded so hard on “Song For” and “Undone” that I’m pretty sure it turned my cheese pizza into a classic pep.
Luckily the stage survived the guitarpocalypse and it was time for the ‘Bonnies to take over. Their set started with a cover, featuring all the ladies teaming up for a fun, folky rendition of The Pixies’ “Where is My Mind?” “This tour is a bunch of women doing what we want” declared Stacy Dee as the rest of the ladies, minus bandmate Cotterill, left the stage. The Fat Wreck duo then treated us to a couple of Bad Cop songs, a few covers, and an expression of love towards Fleetwood Mac and Steely Dan.
The rest of the show progressed in the same way, alternating between solo songs (McGhee played an excellent version of “The Art of Being Alone”) and group efforts. Dee proclaimed that this was only the third day of the tour and for being so new, the group really sounded tight on each other’s harmonies. Hopefully, like the Revival Tour, we get a few more of these. I know I’ll be there.
-Emily Matview
Photos by Aaron Mattern | https://www.flickr.com/photos/akmofoto/
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