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Jen Cray
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Micah Schnabel at Will's Pub
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
Micah Schnabel, Dial Drive, Houston and the Dirty Rats and Sticky Steve and Uncomfortable Dave, Will’s Pub, Jan. 27
Like
Jon Snodgrass individually and
Drag the River collectively, both
Micah Schnabel and his Ohio band
Two Cow Garage are national acts that have shown Orlando lots of love with a long history of visits. On his own, Schnabel taps the same vein of
rootsy Midwestern grit as Two Cow Garage. But while his main band often rolls with a wide-open rock twang, his solo stuff has an even more pronounced
spoken-word edge that injects nerve, angularity and urgency into everything.
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Jen Cray
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Micah Schnabel at Will's Pub
click to enlarge
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Jen Cray
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Micah Schnabel at Will's Pub
click to enlarge
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Jen Cray
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Micah Schnabel at Will's Pub
Beyond just sound and feel, Schnabel’s work pulses with a
charged raconteur heart propelled by as much passion as message. With tales that not just examine the American heartland with rosy romance but embody it in all its truth and spectrum, his solo show is a storyteller experience with folk honesty and punk voltage. It’s a raw lens that’s at once narrative and commentary, radiant in its own fire and humanity.
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Jen Cray
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Micah Schnabel at Will's Pub
click to enlarge
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Jen Cray
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Micah Schnabel at Will's Pub
The rest of his support bill, however, was much more ordinary. Although their music is boilerplate pop-punk, Orlando band
Dial Drive at least had the goods to be a tight and large-sounding unit.
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Jen Cray
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Dial Drive at Will's Pub
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Jen Cray
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Dial Drive at Will's Pub
While they sound like unsavory dinner company on paper, local cohorts
Sticky Steve and
Uncomfortable Dave were complementary performers trading off simple folk-punk jams of melody and humor.
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Jen Cray
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Sticky Steve and Uncomfortable Dave at Will's Pub
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Jen Cray
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Sticky Steve and Uncomfortable Dave at Will's Pub
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Jen Cray
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Sticky Steve and Uncomfortable Dave at Will's Pub
Touring opener
Houston and the Dirty Rats from New Jersey played generic street punk with a drummer who tended to fall behind and a degree of showboating that sometimes bordered on canned corn.
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Jen Cray
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Houston and the Dirty Rats at Will's Pub
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Jen Cray
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Houston and the Dirty Rats at Will's Pub
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Jen Cray
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Houston and the Dirty Rats at Will's Pub
But that Schnabel, man, he’s an inspired force.
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Jen Cray
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Micah Schnabel at Will's Pub
Follow Bao on Twitter (@baolehuu)
Email Bao: baolehuu@orlandoweekly.com