Banditos and Mail The Horse Bring Country Grit To NYC’s Concrete Jungle (SHOW REVIEW)

In a fast-paced urban setting like New York  City, where the landscape is hard and grey and a patch of green grass is a luxury, seeing a band like Banditos from deep down South in Birmingham, Alabama with a sound entirely reflective of the environment from which they come is like breathing a much needed breathe of fresh country air. This past Sunday a modest group of city slickers rode the silver stallions of NYC public transit to The Mercury Lounge on Manhattan’s Lower East Side to see one of Chicago label Bloodshot Records’ newest recording artists and get a taste of life by the Mississippi with a good ol’ southern rock n’ roll show.

Opening up the bill was a band with roots in rural New England, but ultimately formed in Brooklyn, Mail The Horse. The five piece ensemble, consisting of drums, bass, guitar, keyboard, and pedal steel guitar, played a brand of laid-back country rock reminiscent of the Rolling Stones around the time when Keith Richards started doping with Gram Parsons (think “Wild Horses” or “Dead Flowers”). Their songs have an unmistakably timeless quality about them and most tunes you could swear you’ve heard somewhere in your parents’ CD collection while some, like their reworking of the Beatles classic “Don’t Let Me Down”,  you’re sure you have. Guitarist/vocalist Donny Amidon got people shuffling with whats he’s been told is his “best song for boogieing”, a catchy break up number entitled “Flowers and Gasoline” in the vein of The Flying Burrito Brothers.

The aptly named Banditos took to the stage looking like a surly biker gang with long hair, beards and a no-nonsense attitude. They ripped right into their set with a rumble loud as a Harley. Banditos played like a gang too as various members took turns singing lead on songs that ranged in style from raucous southern rock to deep soul and dusty dirt road blues while the rest of the crew receded to the shadows to back them up. The solid bass of Danny Vines coupled with the technical but grooving drumming of Randy Wade provided a strong backbone for the performance. But it was the lone female of the outfit, the feisty Mary Beth Richardson, who eventually came to steal the show as her Janis Joplin-esque blues wailing and unpredictable stage presence commanded the second half of the performance. When, eventually the young blues singer announced that they would be playing their last song of the evening, the audience, most of whom had remained somewhat standoffish throughout, begged for more.

Related Content

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter