“Los Angeles’ best live band” is quite the claim, and it’s not one that should be thrown around loosely.
In a city with 3 million people and thousands of bands, “best live band” could be one writer’s exaggeration. Critics like me have had countless show experiences we deem “the best thing I’ve ever seen.” I’ll accept this.
Los Angeles, for sure loaded with cool music and great bands, is also home to a bunch of mass-produced advertising-driven garbage. For every Black Flag or Guns N’ Roses you have thousands of flavors of the weeks aimed toward tastes similar to that of my 11 year old.
If LA Weekly names a “best live band,” however, I’ll probably give them a listen. The free weekly has bestowed that title on Dustbowl Revival. The six-piece Los Angeles based gospel-swing-jazz-roots band, whose show is a musical, visual affair of fun, will perform at the Henry Strater Theatre tomorrow.
The band is comprised of Zach Lupetin on guitar and vocals, Liz Beebe on vocals and washboard, Daniel Mark on mandolin, Connor Vance on fiddle, Matt Rubin on trumpet, Ulf Bjorlin on trombone, Josh Heffernan on drums and James Klopfleisch on bass.
Dustbowl Revival formed in 2008. Band members came from different places with varying musical interests, and the result is a collection of instruments and sounds contributing to Americana. Not the textbook definition of Americana, which leads to ideas of folk, but Americana in a historical sense; jazz, swing, bluegrass and blues.
“We’ve been able to bring communities of music that normally wouldn’t be able to exist in the same place, which is really fun,” Lupetin said last week in a phone interview.
Music interests are cyclical; every few years older genres get pulled back into rotation. Interest now is peaking in American music’s history. Bands like Dustbowl Revival are nodding to the vaudeville and snake-oil circuit with their take on jazz, blues and string band sounds.
“It goes back to what roots music really is, which is finding that true American language in music,” Lupetin said. “People I think need authenticity in music, and pop music does not give that to them.”
While Dustbowl’s approach to music is with one foot planted firmly in today and the other digging into the rich and diverse history of American music, the band also holds a belief that music is medicine.
“We want to take the music seriously but have it be a fun environment. We’re having a party, we’re playing old time party music,” Lupetin said. “Music is something you go to to work through things and forget about your workday. It’s something that can make you feel better about the world in general, that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
Bryant’s best
Today: Rock and roots with Lawn Chair Kings, 8 p.m., no cover, El Rancho Tavern, 975 Main Ave, 259-8111.
Saturday: Folk, swing and blues with Dustbowl Revival, 8 p.m., $12, $15 day of show, Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave., 375-7160.
