Dynamic Duos

Holy terrific twosomes, Batman!

The first month of 2010 has brought a first for me: seeing more 2-piece bands than anything else.  Here are a couple not included in last week’s post:

Reverse Cowboy  (the BAND people, the BAND!)
Thinking New Year’s Eve doesn’t get much better than a dive bar and little-to-no crowd, I checked out this dynamic duo on 12/31 the Dubliner in Saint Paul.  Scottie Devlin and Cody McKinney serve up a solid mix of traditional Irish tunes, but Test Site 67 fans will be thrilled to hear a few Test Site originals thrown into the mix for good measure, including “Egyptian Skies”, which ranks in my All-Time Top 10 Favorite Songs.  This particular night we got a special treat when the duo tapped into some lighter harmonies and served up a hauntingly intense version of U2’s “New Year’s Day”, completely making the classic song 100% their own.  One of the greatest things about this 2-piece is that you never can tell who is having more fun, the crowd or the musicians because everybody rocks out like there's no tomorrow, and you'd be crazy not to join in.  If you’re lucky, you’ll hit the band on a night Scottie is sporting his kilt—yes, the Irish have their own version—and if you butter him up with comments about kilts being oh-so-sexy, you can secure nearly any song request.

Check out Reverse Cowboy for creative twists on Irish standards with a guaranteed good time.  No exceptions.

Gay Witch Abortion (hereby referred to as GWA)
While the name of this dynamic duo almost warrants an immediate exception from any sort of positive praise, I’ll bypass that urge…just this once.  Now, I’ve never been a metalhead, am not currently a metalhead, and I likely will never be a metalhead, but in the interest of an open mind, I saw GWA as an opener at the Turf Club.  Less than five minutes into the set, I was already scraping my jaw off the slushy bar floor, wondering when would be appropriate to feel impressed.  The sound coming out of one drummer and one (non-screaming) singer/guitarist was bigger, badder, tighter and more full than most 5-piece bands can produce.  My only criticism was the drummer’s excessive use of the floor tom because, let’s face it, too much floor tom can sound a bit “George of the Jungle”.  Overall, it wasn’t my style, but I was impressed with what they were able to do—make a rock chick think twice about metal.  No small feat!

Check out GWA to let out your metal angst with a band that you can actually bring NON-metalheads to see.


I leave you with the words of Cody McKinney:  "It's 2010--anything can happen, bitch!"

-E