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| Kevin Kenly Photography |
Polecat Advances and
Grows
The Top Hat
4-7-12
I will
admit I was anti bluegrass style of music for the longest time until a band by
the name of Elephant Revival came along. They opened my eyes to something I now
have fallen into a mad love affair with. One other band that has kept that love affair
going stronger than ever as well heightened the love is a band from Bellingham,
WA that goes by the name Polecat. Polecat, a band that I have seen live once
before and turned me into a complete addict in one show, was back at it again
in Missoula, MT looking to bring their edgy americana upbeat Celtic reggae bluegrass
to a town they all have grown to love. The five member band have grow attached
to our great town here whether it be the feel of the town, the friends they
have here, the happiness that radiates, or just the plan fact that Missoula loves
music and loves to have a worry free good time. Either way Aaron Guest
(12-string Acoustic/vocals), Jeremy Elliott (Electric Guitar), Richard Reeves
(Upright Bass), Cayley Schmid (Fiddle), and Karl Olson (Drums) know how to rock
it.
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| Kevin Kenly Photography |
I was excited
for this show for months, mainly because I looked forward to seeing Polecat
headline their first show here as well as see how much they have improved over the
time. The band did not disappoint one bit and they were letting lose throughout
the show as well as before the show when upright bass player Richard Reeves was
seen dancing with newly met girls during the opening band, smooth moves my
friend. The band has grown tremendously over the time between shows says Karl
Olson who maintains the drums, “We are pushing 500 a show in our hometown as
well as really picking up a great crowd in Portland, OR”, “Festivals for the
Summer are looking really good with hopes for Northwest String Summit, and we
are starting to venture into new areas of the West Coast seeing a following we didn’t
expect and even meeting people who drive out of their way to see us”. Happy to
hear this, all these signs are pointing to improvement and good things to come,
which I never once expected less from this beyond talented band.
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| Kevin Kenly Photography |
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| Kevin Kenly Photography |
Polecat
took the stage looking the part of success and opened with an all instrumental
rock like intro. Jeremy, on his electric guitar seemed to be leading the warm
up as he brought his edgy blues guitar riffs to everyone’s attention. After a
more mellow song is offered to the crowd, Aaron talks about how they love The
Top Hat before breaking into “Evening Train” off their newest album Fire on the
Hill. Aaron shows off his country edgy vocals in the song as Cayley absolutely stuns
you with her fiddle playing, which is as proper and as professional as I have
ever seen. The great part about seeing this song live is the extension of the
song you get from the whole band which saw them breakdown Celtic style with a
layer of blues jam from Jeremy on top of it. You were also given a taste of Karl
and how talented he is on his downsized drum set towards the end of the song
that completed a perfect tune. The band then broke into what they are best,
which is just straight up playing their instruments and getting everyone
moving. The song played was “Turnbull Reel”, which is a Celtic foot stomping
good time that is led by Cayley once again sending un-seeable fiddle sound
waves through the air that induce you with nothing but joy. Watching her play
is like a musical strip tease for people who are passionate about music in
their lives. The main string instrument trio of Aaron, Jeremy, and Richard
dancing with his stand-up bass,maybe still showing off the his moves to ladies
in the crowd, controlled the next song which was a mixture of blues and mellow
bluegrass. A new song by the name of “Skangales”
I believe came next (Name is something like that). A song I had personally
never heard before by recognition of I have never heard anything like It in my
whole life, the song was an all instrumental jam that truly inter weaved
bluegrass and reggae like I have never seen, heard, or ever thought possible.
Richard and Carl controlled the seductive reggae vibes while the rest of the band
threw bluegrass and reggae breakdowns on top of it creating an instrumental jam
well worthy of multiple plays. “We now pick a year and only do song covers from
that year during each show, and the year for this show is 1982”, “If you guess
the name of the band who sings this song, you will earn yourself a free koozie”
says Aaron before Polecat breaks into Modern English’s song “I Melt With You”. Two
songs later Polecat was back at it with another all instrumental jam, which
they have pristine talent at doing. Watching them on stage their stage presence
goes up a couple notches when it is jam out time and I realized how savvy this
band has become. This particular jam was led by the drummer Karl with a traditional
Celtic fashion sound, and was picked up by Aaron shouting into his microphone,
pointing his acoustic guitar into the air, and sending the message for Jeremy to
shred on his guitar as he does so well. Two more song where played before the
band called for a set break to let everyone re-energize.
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| Kevin Kenly Photography |
Talking
to Aaron during set break he talked about how they have not traveled much and
also as a band musically as well as traveling they are still trying to get a
grasp for everything, which was very surprising seeing how everything seemed to
operate smoothly from my perspective. “Also we are kind of caught in that weird
middle zone of opening for bands and getting shows to headline”, which seems understandable
but with their talent the middle friend zone were surely blossom into all out relationship
with headlining shows.
The second
set was started with what is one of the hits of their new album called “Fire on
the Hill”. It was a great second set opening song, which saw Aaron vocally
sounding the best rocking his intimidating Oregon Trail mustache with lyrics of
staying together with someone and the passion you can have for that person. The
mustache seemed to be to intimidating as Aaron was the odd man out when Cayley
and Jeremy had a fiddle verse electric guitar battle, and on the other side
during a different part of the song Karl and Richard battled as well, drums
verse upright bass. “Fishin Reel” another all instrumental on the new album was
played next. It was a pure build up instrumental that goes step by step picking
up the pace until everyone is induced and dancing. Bill Monroe’s “Brand New
Shoes” as well as a Bela Fleck tune were then played back to back, both which
were made to the style of the wild Polecat. One of my favorite tunes was then played a few
songs later “Tell Me Show Me”. A song that saw Jeremy mix it up with a great
electric guitar traveling intro, Cayley get called out by Aaron and go into a
fiddle jamboree, and is also one of their most catchy songs and in my mind the
song that is them in a nutshell. Polecat
then played a new song that was the song that may have caught my eye, ears, and
music feelings the most. Cayley seemed to be the most pumped about playing this
song as she did a little kid bouncy dance before she broke into her fiddle at
the start. The song had edges of Slightly Stoopid, a retro true to form Celtic
band, and classic rock, which all mixed together, made for one song to remember
for all of time. Midway through the song the band went silent only to explode
back into the song bluegrass style. This song was as jam band as you could ask
for by a bluegrass band that is not afraid to mix together anything, and you
can tell they really come together during these moments. The end of the song
saw a Star Wars theme teaser as well as some more classic rock just too really
throw the crowd for a loop. The band ended with that song, and like we all knew
would happen they came back on for an encore which consisted an original song, but
more so the band just individually strutting what they got playing one at a
time with the other members setting the stage.
Polecat
has grown into a way more fierce animal from show one to show two for me. I was
impressed from start to finish, which is exactly what you would hope for from a
band trying to grow their fan base, skill level, and opportunities. They
strengthened the bond I have with loving their band, and making me still
believe they are one of my favorite bluegrass bands out there today, but don’t get
confused by the word bluegrass because this band is more like a Celtic reggae
folk band that will toss you around, dance your thoughts away, trick you at
many corners, and make sure by the end you are comfortable with what had just
happened. Well played Polecat, well
played.
Polecat - www.polecatmusic.com
The Top Hat Lounge - www.tophatmissoula.com
Kevin Kenly Photography - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kevin-Kenly-Photography/316666751709264
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