If your Monday night involved anything other than attending the Magpies show at White Water, you just might have made a mistake. The successor band to Roger Hoover & the Whiskeyhounds didn't just blow through Little Rock on their way someplace else. They came to stay awhile. And at the end of their almost 40-song set, some three-and-a-half hours after they began, when the tavern crowd, Hoover, and his gang, finally came up for air, no one regretted their decision to skip whatever it was that primetime television had to offer that night. It was indeed a remarkable show.
An indie, folk rock band from Cleveland, the heart and soul of the outfit are Justin Gorski on keys, accordian and vocals, and Roger Hoover on guitar and vocals. Dave McKean covers drums and contributes on vocals, and Chris Yohn rounds things out on bass. Gorski is a phenom on the keyboard, with a wicked and furious style that somehow manages to look both smoothly professional and almost epileptic, his free hand hanging in mid-air and twitching to some inner beat before dropping back to the keys for the next punctuated note. He seems to feel every measure of the music in his bones and project it through his expressions and mannerisms. He makes good use of dissonant sound when the song calls for it, but without carrying it to excess.
Hoover is a consummate songwriter, with a skill for interesting lyrics and clever turns of phrase - "tomorrow wears a thorny crown." He's a machine on guitar as well. There were several points in Monday night's show that his hands became a blur and I thought I saw smoke rise from the fretboard. What's more impressive is that Hoover and Gorski -- and the whole band, for that matter -- are able to pull off these theatrics and still create a tight sound, remaining acutely aware of exactly what each of the other band members is doing at any given second and synchronizing their contribution to whatever's going on almost perfectly.
Currently touring on their album Eastern Standard Time, White Water has apparently become something of a regular stop for The Magpies, who played here as recently as a few weeks ago. It seems that the band and the White Water staff comprise a sort of mutual admiration society, which is understandable. The band's sound and style fit the tavern like a glove.
The new album got a full airing Monday night, along with plenty of material from the Whiskeyhounds albums and several covers. The crowd was impressive for a weeknight, with a full floor and people lined up the stairs next to the stage as well. As the night wore on, particularly after a half-hour break late in the set, beer and shots continued to be offered up on the musical alter by worshipful tavernites eager to quench the Magpies thirst and loosen whatever musical inhibitions -- I didn't detect any -- may have existed earlier in the show. Not wanting to appear ungrateful, the band accepted and the lights kept burning until well past one o'clock. You would have thought they were about to go all night long when Hoover somewhat sheepishly announced last song.
There's lots more that could be said about these guys, but there's just one more thing I'll add. They can hold their whiskey. Check them out here.
-G
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