Harley Poe @ The Melody Inn

As I walked in I was met with an eye and ear full of a solo singer
and guitar player named Danny Johnson. He never announced his weight,
but if I had to guess I would say somewhere in the neighborhood of 300
pounds. His shimmering black acoustic guitar looked tiny in comparison
as he imitated old Elvis songs, complete with the most powerful
sideburns I have ever seen. My personal favorite was a rendition of “A
Little More Action” which had all the middle aged women in the bar
swooning. At the end of the “Hillbilly Happy Hour”, as the
establishment had named his act, he stepped down from the stage with
the aid of a single walking cane to be met with a wave of handshakes
and pats on the back. I overheard a lady with dirty blond hair say to
him, “If I weren’t married…” I didn’t care to see where the
conversation went from there.
It was now time for the scheduled
acts to begin. The crowd had tripled in size and the “Award Winning
Melody Inn Juke Box” was blaring songs ranging from James Brown to
Weezer to Rage Against the Machine.
First up was the three piece
Eisenhower Field Day from Indianapolis with a rapid fire style of
alternative rock. The members all had their own mics and they
collectively sang harmony on almost every song, giving them a very 90’s
sound that was like a mixture of Pavement, Oasis, and the Foo Fighters.
The crowd showed them courtesy, but there weren’t any points of high
excitement, though there weren’t any dull moments either.
Next up
was the group I had come to see, the horror film expert folk rockers
Harley Poe. I was curious how there unique style of songs about
necrophilia, cannibalism, and sexually transmitted diseases would go
over with the crowd. However, one look around at the pompadours and
full-spread back tattoos dismissed any concerns about that matter.

The
actual band was made up of three permanent members (guitar, bass, and a
snare player) and one previous member who was playing for old time’s
sake (mandolin). Their reputation preceded them slightly, drawing in a
dense crowd around the stage as they set up. After smoothing out some
minor tuning difficulties, they launched into their set. Veteran
observers fervently sang along and first timers clapped their hands in
time as they laughed at the upbeat yet morbidly twisted songs. As
entertaining as the show was to this point, I must admit that I had
business there other than writing this review. I saw the percussionist
signal to me and I took up my tan and brown suitcase and made my way
the stage. Once up, I unlatched the case and held up my accordion as
the crowd cheered and I slipped the straps over my shoulders to
approach the mic. Tonight I was going to be the fifth member of Harley
Poe. No, wait, fourth? Does Adamandolin count? Oh well. There were more
important, like the minor tuning problem they had smoothed out earlier.
Apparently it was smoothed down one full step because the songs I had
been practicing for the past few days were no longer in the right key.
Once I got my bearings again, we were off like a lumbering beast made
of reeds and strings powered by a thirty cylinder snare drum engine.
Now I wonder if a review still counts if I was playing music with the
band…