The floor of the High Noon Saloon last Thursday was soaked in beer. Not because patrons had recklessly discarded Wisconsin’s most cherished elixir, but rather because it had flown out of their bottles and glasses as they danced.
Dead Horses and their openers, Current Swell and the Sharrows were the impetus for the crowd’s happy gyrations. The trio of bands each offered their own unique take on blues, folk and rock. While their performances were not consistently perfect, they brought an unbridled joy to the audience.
As the early crowd began mingling and drinking, the Sharrows casually strolled onstage around 8:30 p.m. A Madison-based group who calls a barn studio their musical mecca, began with “Yours and Mine,” a track from their 2014 EP Days of Lore.
Frontman Phil Sharrow had strong support throughout the short-lived performance from his bandmates, notably keyboardist Joe Hermanson and cellist Sylvia Janicki. Both symbolized a synthesis of classic folk persona and a refreshing dash of hipster. Hermanson engaged the crowd with a cowboy hat and boots while eliciting strange sounds from his keys, and Janicki slayed an electric cello (and sometimes bass) with unbelievable ease.
Janicki’s contributions were perhaps the highlight of the set; her lamenting cello reverberated through tracks like “Echo” as Sharrow sang, “Please, baby please won’t you bring it on home.”
The second opener of the night, Canadian rock band Current Swell, is a well-known group on an international scale, but the foursome seemed awkwardly nudged between two local acts.
An apparent identity crisis also impeded their performance. Current Swell is labelled as an indie rock band, with a pair of newsboy hats and the ragged mane of bassist Ghosty Boy to prove it. But their music is rooted in upbeat folk, and while indie rock and folk are not mutually-exclusive, the band’s ambiguous branding distracted from their live presence.
Fortunately the music largely compensated for such misgivings. Their most exciting track was “Rollin” off their newest release Ulysses. It is a bluesy, classic rock-inspired song with rumbling guitar, powerful bass and a harmonica that just won’t quit. Their “Wayne’s World” style unified head-banging infected the crowd with energy. The audience swayed and swooped to the aggressive notes. The band members hopped around the stage with similar excitement as frontman Scott Stanton crooned the chorus, “It’s fine all the splendid time that he had / It’s fine all that splendid time that made him mad.”
Such tracks were balanced with more indie staples, such as “Young and Able” and “Who’s With Us?,” which was dedicated to the audience. The former was a welcomed, more relaxing performance with Stanton strumming his acoustic guitar to the gentle, sweet melody.
At last the headliner Dead Horses, reigning from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was set to take the stage. After the two openers animated performances, Dead Horses’ mellow folk grass seemed like a difficult genre to keep up the adrenaline. But when the four members walked to the stage’s precipice with their “unplugged” instruments, it became clear their intimacy with the audience alone would be enough to push through their sleepier tracks.
WI natives Dead Horses to showcase poignant, youthful folkgrass at High Noon Saloon
They began with “To A God Unknown,” a fast-paced song from their 2014 release, Space and Time. Tim McIlree, to the left of Sarah Vos, shredded his fiddle, Daniel Wolff masterfully plucked his massive bass and on the far right Peter Raboin played his acoustic guitar, catching the eye of this fellow bandmates. All the while Vos belted and strummed her own guitar as the foursome gradually clustered together into a jam session. The crowd responded in toe, dancing across the venue.
Dead Horses followed up with “Cosmos,” a positive anthem and first song of Space and Time. The swift fingers shredding their respective instruments and charming melody brought couples together across the High Noon. One made the balcony their own dance floor, prancing about the small space and drawing the eye of McIlree, who promptly called out the “cute couple.”
McIlree continued to be the mouthpiece for the band, making silly jokes and shamelessly plugging merchandise. Vos seemed to have a smile permanently etched on her face, occasionally addressing the audience with an unassuming nature.
Unfortunately as it approached midnight, their tracks were not always enough to keep energy up, including the otherwise enjoyable “Sad Story.”
But Dead Horses finished strong, bringing up Phil Sharrow for the first part of their encore, creating a brief Wisconsin supergroup. Lastly they put their instruments to the test with a genre-defying cover of “Baba O’Riley.” As they sang, the thinning audience whooped and clapped, absorbing the familiar classic into their veins.
Once the performances were over, the positive vibes in High Noon Saloon were unmistakable. It was an overall exhilarating showcase of rock varietals, lulling the crowd into a folky euphoria.
