Eddy Bear and the Cubs and Yosemite Slam at the Triple B, Thursday Jan 29, 2015

Hopefully, life is starting to calm down a little bit so that I can start getting out a bit more. Made it out on a work night to see Eddy Bear, though couldn't stay up long enough to see the headliner - such is life.

Opening the evening (well, actually, the first band of the night was an odd alt/new-wave combo that had nothing to do with the rest of the event) was Yosemite Slam, a three piece mixing a lot of different sounds together. With a hot rod/punk-rock drummer, a rootsy stand up bassist/lead singer and a modern heavy metal guitarist, they are working on a cow-punk feel, but the parts aren't quite blending together for me. And I like people who think outside the box and merge seemingly disparate ideas together. Maybe it was just the sound that night or something. They are solid players and had some good ideas, but...

Of course, I have gone on and on about local honky-tonk masterminds, Eddy Bear and the Cubs, though now they have added a fiddle player to expand the sound. Unfortunately, he was often a bit buried in the mix, but he would make appearances and give a cool, new twist to the trad country tunes that the Cubs perform.

They pulled out some of their standards, like "Little Sister", Wayne Hancock's "Thunderstorms and Neon Sign", "Long White Cadillac" (which gave guitarist Wade a platform for some searing licks), "Ooh Las Vegas" and "I'm the Bulge in Satan's Pants", with a new arrangement in 1/2 time. The gents pulled off some sweet harmonies, there were some nice multiple guitar interaction and the fiddle intertwined with everything and worked off of the others well.

So, I'm a fan obviously, but just cuz these cats are that damn good. Great players, great singers and a fine selection of songs. They play regularly so no excuse not to see them! They are on the build at the same venue next week with the Blasters - definitely a show to see!