Sgt. Dunbar & the Hobo Banned @ Pete’s Candy Store

The first night of the CMJ Festival was a freezing cold Tuesday, and I headed out to the crowded warmth of Pete’s Candy Store to catch Sgt. Dunbar & the Hobo Banned perform a late show. Sometimes a band and the venue don’t match, and this show was a case in point – Pete’s is a great small venue, and Sgt. Dunbar is a band with at least nine people and probably twice as many instruments. There was no way to fit them on the small stage, and the crowd who came to watch were spilling out the doors.

All the effort, crowding, and confusion was worth it for this show, though. The band’s music meets somewhere at the intersection of a rollicking drunken song sing-a-long, a singer/songwriter’s careful lyrics, and a folksy mountain band. The band members swap instruments and locations as need be, bringing to bear their skill on something as conventional as a guitar and drums, classical as a violin or french horn, less common as an accordian or banjo, and completely unconventional as a musical saw.

Even though I was, for much of the show, sitting uncomfortably at the foot of the stage, it was impossible not to catch some of the enthusiasm this band has for playing music together. If more of us in the audience had known the words, we would no doubt have been singing along with them. If we’d had more space, we’d have stomped our feet to the time.

The constant action and tricky lighting of this show made this one of the most difficult that I’ve photographed in a long time. But those elements also produced on of the most interesting sets of pictures that I’ve had to date – that’s why there are so many up on Flickr.

I shouldn’t have to tell you that you ought to check this band out, but I will anyway. If you get a chance to see them – either now or at SXSW ’09 – do so. I promise you will not be disappointed.