Last night’s Outlaw Roadshow at Bend’s Les Schwab Amphitheater, featured Counting Crows and included the opening bands Field Report, Tender Mercies (a replacement for originally scheduled We Are Augustines) and Portland rock band Kasey Anderson & The Honkies. Besides the omission of We Are Augustines from the bill, the only disappointment was that Anderson’s band played such a short set.
Anderson—who is sort of a scrawny dude, delivered rotund rock vocals reminiscent of an old-timey Northwest inspired singer. But his band, The Honkies backed him with a sound that seemed to come from the 1920’s era of bathtub-gin-makin’ and county fair dancin’.
From their opening song, Anderson and The Honkies wandered through all sorts of imagery with their music. One minute they took the audience to church with fanciful organ playing and the next their gritty Social Distortion like punk vocals would have paired nicely with a bank robbery scene starring Jason Statham. The Southern rock song “My Baby’s A Wrecking Ball” was perhaps the highlight of the performance as Anderson and The Honkies used chorus harmonies and raw guitar to blaze through the fun and sing-a-long worthy song.
There isn’t really a traditional type of rock-and-roll, Anderson doesn’t incorporate into his music and the show’s headliner is definitely a fan. Not only did the Counting Crows invite Anderson and his band to open the second leg of the Outlaw Roadshow, but front man Adam Duritz also decided to record Anderson’s song “Like Teenage Gravity” for the band’s latest album. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, Anderson must be on the right path.
Look for Kasey Anderson and The Honkies to return to the Northwest when the current tour ends in a couple of days. Anderson will be doing an acoustic set at Portland’s Doug Fir Lounge on Sunday August 19, and the whole band will be together in Seattle on September 2 at Ballard’s Tractor Tavern.
In the meantime, check out their new single “Heavy Heart” and then download a great Daytrotter session the guys recorded last year.
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2012.
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