By: Jon Behm
Thunder in the Valley - Photo by Salty Jon Behm
Avast, me hearties! When I’m not a-pillagin’ and a-plunderin,’ the only other thing that can warm this chilled pirate heart o’ mine is a pint of rum and a little music to stomp my stump to. Fates be praised, during a bit o’ shore leave I set course for the Thunder in the Valley show at the Hexagon Bar, a show that would have made the gods of the sea weep salty tears. AAAAARRRR! ‘Twas grand!
TITV, landlubbers though they are, bring me memories back of old sea shanties sung on the wide open plain of the ocean on moonless nights. Theirs is not the song of the sea though, but the same old ragtime and ruckus that sets me heart ablaze and gives me cutlass a thirst for blood. They may be land pirates yet, the scurvy swags! Songs like “Alter” and “So The Story Goes” can be both bright rug-cuttin’ swing and darkly Waitsian stories at the same time. Ah Tom Waits, never a truer pirate there be twixt’ Heaven and Hell! Have ye given birth to a brand new generation of carnival barkers and twilight lounge singers, right in our very own port of Minneapolis? If last Wednesday night’s audience be any sort of judge at all, then I reckons that TITV have a future of rocking full houses and causing mass breakouts of boogaloo two-step throughout the furthest reach of the seven seas. They set sail tomorrow on national tour, so we shall see. Aarrgh, and see we will!
Just as no pirate (save meself) can storm a Spanish galleon with out the aid of his bloodthirsty crew, The Hexagon’s line up of supporting bands was as strong as the currents of the Bosphorus. Black Audience opened the attack with a salvo of boogie, blues and AAAAAR & B. While the band backed her up on banjo, calimba and bodhran, lead singer Jayanthi Kyle made me spine shiver with her haunting renditions of old blues and gospel numbers. An’ the spoon playin’ reminded me fondly of me old first mate Ezekiel Bones, who could hit a mean pair of spoons til we threw him into the ocean, rest his soul.
Next Brooklyn’s Salt and SamovAAAAAR cut me to the quick with their psychedelic Americana, like a rusty dagger in my gullet (AAAAR, they give me indigestion!). In a positive way though, ye dogs! Stompin’ and bouncin,’ I nearly put me hook through me own nose! Where S& S didn’t seem to find the audience’s favor was in their enormous American flag stage dressing. “Do you like killing innocent people?” someone shouted at them. “Ahoy, killin’ be my bread and butter” I shouted back. Though the only flag this pirate flies under is the Jolly Roger, ‘tis dark tidings when we have come to equate the very symbol of the country we live in with the politics of injustice.
Cap’n Mike Gunther and his Restless Souls rounded out the mix with their fast tempo swing jazz. Gunther is a broad-chinned showman whose voice is perfectly suited to the style. And the Restless Souls! Restless, like my blade, they include no less than wicked saxophonist Martin Devaney, a valkyrie on the drums and a steely-eyed bull fiddler. They nearly had me shootin’ me pistols in the air, until I realized that the Hexagon bartender, a pirate fiercer even than myself, may have made me walk the plank for even a lesser offense.
Me ship set sail early on the sun-up, so I grabbed the nearest ship’s wenches and hit the door shortly before the end of TITV’s set. Though a pirate loves his song and dance, he also needs a good night’s sleep so he has energy for burnin’ and lootin.’ Aaaaargh! Who am I kiddin'! Bring on Thunder in the Valley so that we can shake, boogie and stomp until the sun sees fit to shine its face upon our sins! I’ll not stop dancin’ till me bones lie at the bottom of the salty sea!
Location Info:
Hexagon Bar
Artist Info: Black Audience, Mike Gunther, Salt and Samovar, Thunder in the Valley
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