The Big Surprise

When I went home last time, I made an overnight stop in Nashville to see a show on the "Big Surprise" tour. The Felice Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show, Justin Earle, and The David Rawlings Maching (David Rawlings and Gillian Welche, but with David as the frontman and Gillian as the backup singer).

The gimmick of the shows is that the bands played with each other frequently, and people were constants coming and going from the stage. "It's Justin Earle with the Old Crow Medicine Show. . . . is that a Felice Brother plugging his guitar in during the middle of the song. . . who's that guy. . . oh it's Benmont Tenche. . . holy shit, that's Benmont Tenche!"

It was pretty much 100% awesome, although the order the bands played didn't quite work for me. Old Crow was treated as the headliner, although they are probably my least favorite band on the bill (although I like them a lot. . . hell, I'd drive down to De Moines on a Monday night to see them). That made the last hour a little anticlimactice, but then there was an encore featuring EVEYBODY, which was completely awesome.

Great show. I recommend seeing any of those bands in any configuration.

While I'm thinking about it, Justin Earle is one of my favorite young performers, and he gets better all the time. I saw him in Macon a couple of years ago with just a vague idea of who he is. DAMN. I was pretty much blown away. His onstage presence is pretty much Hank Williams Sr. but with tats and a greaser hairdo. He's the real deal. He's not much like his dad in terms of what he sounds like, but he's got that same "thing" that great performers have. At the show I saw in Macon, he had the whole bar rocking, with people dancing and hollering like it was a punk show. And it was just a skinny dude with an acoustic guitar. Bad ass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjOkIlF_bGQ