Thee Swank Bastards and the Swamp Gospel at the HardHat Lounge Saturday Feb 7, 2015

For the first Swamp Gospel revival of 2015, we returned to the Hard Hat Lounge and brought along swingin' surf combo Thee Swank Bastards. The fine members of our congregation came out in force early and we had a stompin', sweaty, strychnine-drinkin' time!

This evening the Bastards included drummer-about-town Courtney Carroll (Clydesdale and too many others to name) and dancer Ivana Blaze (who went through a couple of costume changes during the set), along with their fearless leader Jesse del Quadro and bass meister Jeff Murphy. I couldn't tell you the names of their tunes, since they almost never introduce them (though there seemed to be a couple juvenile-ly dirty titles like "Just the Tip"), even if they always have time for some dirty jokes, but they were all fun and rockin', with a groovy beat for Ivana to dance to. Jeff and Courtney lock in together solidly (Jeff is also a stellar guitarist in the Bitters) and Jesse's playing includes all the Dick Dale tricks you love about surf, with plenty of his own flash'n'style - this is truly one of the more talented bunch of players in instrumental music today - right up there with the Black Widows and the Boardwalkers. Always more fun than shootin' the curl - whether or not you get the added bonus of a hotsie-totsie shakin' her stuff in front of the gang!