Even Mondays Bring Great Music
The band that I last saw between a top five favorite artist of mine, Frank Turner, and the super talented, Beans on Toast, was the headliner tonight. Skinny Lister who toured with Frank was the ones traveling the U.S. atop the tour. They impressed last time in that amazing sandwich of musicians at the Press Room, and they upped the ante when playing the role of headliner tonight.
Right off the bat the show started off with a great duo of brothers from Wisconsin called Trapper Schoepp. These guys are more in the influence of folk and Western music. They played a majority of their own music with a cover to end the night after a guitar tuning. The local comparison I could give would be like our very own Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold. These guys have a great sense of humor, and a great performance to go with it.
This was followed up with the one man performance of Lincoln Durham. He performed what sounds like fast paced Southern Rock and Roll. Lincoln performs all instruments and percussion himself. He alternates the stringed instruments from your traditional guitar to a single string instrument while hitting the bass drum. At one point, he set down the guitar, drummed on the small kit while strumming the guitar in the parts of the song where needed. He sits atop the best one man bands I’ve seen to date.
Skinny Lister made sure to take advantage of this being their tour. The crowd was a majority mix of people who saw them with Frank Turner, and those who saw them on the Flogging Molly cruise. Skinny Lister wasn’t short of energy, dancing around their stage and moving to the front to engage the crowd. This comes across more in a smaller venue like Rebel Lounge than the last time as the Pressroom. Michael Camino crowd surfed while continuing to play the stand-up bass. Two thirds of the way through their set, Lorna even just spent two songs dancing in the crowd. I was able to share part of the jaunty dance with her to a song as she got near me and grabbed my shoulder. This wasn’t the limit of their crowd interaction because they also pass around their jug, filled with what tastes like whiskey, amongst the older crowd. Unlike at the Frank Turner show at the larger Pressroom, it reached me twice here.
They closed out the set inviting Lincoln Durham and both brothers of Trapper Schoepp to perform the last song. Skinny Lister’s energy was contagious as Trapper went into the crowd, and then walked the top of the dividing rail back to the stage. If this is what it is like when Skinny Lister headlines their own show, I want more of this and hopefully it happens again soon.
