Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band.  You might have caught them at the Flying Anvil a few years ago and been blown away (like us) by their ass-kicking, name-taking, guitar ripping, washboard licking, foot pounding, holy awesomeness.  You might have been one of the lucky, jubilant, freedom-loving Guilford students who celebrated their performance on campus by tearing off their clothes and rolling around in the mud.  Reverend Peyton remembers it fondly.  In fact, it has made his band nostalgic for Greensboro and so they drove into our fair city in their big black van yesterday anticipating a well attended show at the Blind Tiger. 

Unfortunately, this was not the case.  School night, yes. Cash-strapped, yes.  Excuse for missing a majorly bad ass band from Indiana come through your town?  Not so much.  Lame, Greensboro, lame.  The Reverend, his wife Breezy and his brother Jayme have been touring all over the country and in May they’re starting their first European tour.  They came through Greensboro ’cause they wanted to not necessarily because it was practical.   Their show was raucous and rockin’ and honestly one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen from the second the Reverend picked up his guitar, wheeled around and kicked the dust off the cymbal to the moment they walked out the front door.  I imagine they would play that way in their own garage.  Nonetheless, they were a little disappointed.  These guys sell out shows.  They’re not messing around.   After the show, the Reverend, who was friendly and gracious, asked us to spread the word.  He seemed sad and slightly confused about the turnout.  We don’t know if they’ll come back.  But we really, really hope they do.

Why this show was not well-publicized, we don’t know.  We found it here on our monkeywhale calendar.  People in this city need to communicate, we do know that.  Supporting each others’ shows and each others’ bands and each others’ creative pursuits is the only way we’re all going to make it.  This show was an example of people going out on a limb for music in Greensboro.  We’re sorry if we didn’t do our part to spread the word.  We vow to do more.  Hopefully our calendar is the first step.  A lot of time is being put into it to make it as comprehensive as possible.  In the meantime we’ll try to post and link and blog and photograph everything we can get our hands on if you do your part and show up!

So here are a few photos from last night.  Check out their website and their myspace and listen at a high volume.  And try to join us next time if you can.