Murder By Death, Larry and His Flask Fitzgerald's September 21st, 2013

Humans measure the end of Summer in different ways. For some Labor Day is the end of Summer (and wearing white). For others Summer ends when school starts. Officially, however, Summer ended on Saturday night. What that means, practically speaking, is that Saturday night was one last chance for a sweaty night of beer, friendship, and live music in celebration of the death of the season.

Few tour pairings are as well suited for that kind of sweaty celebration the way Murder by Death and Larry and His Flask are. The Southern spirit is strong in both, the former a bit more gothic and western, the latter more hillbilly, but both the type to get beer drinkers up and rowdy (perhaps a bit too rowdy, depending on your point of view).

And whether it was by cello or by banjo, they did get the crowd moving.

Larry and His Flask are one of the great, underappreciated live acts in modern music. They're the type of band that can win damn near anyone over if they get the chance to play in front of them. Passionate, fun to watch, easy to dance to, they mix punk and bluegrass in a blender and then go balls out on stage.

Highlights of their opening set included an awesome cover of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On", one member of the band crowd surfing and almost taking out the light rig, and an upright bass player that moves like he's playing an instrument ¼ the size of the one he actually is playing.

It's hard not to like a band that proves that more non-ska bands should use trombone and have a song about the Heaven's Gate cult. Good times.

Review continues on the next page.