Thursday 16/10/03 The Boggs @ Barfly, Liverpool

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From the whisky-soaked troubadour rock of Ryan Adams to the multi platinum selling 'Brother Where Art Thou' soundtrack, bluegrass has suddenly become an integral part of the post modern zeigeist.  At club night Bandwagon, The Hokum Clones sit comfortably alongside The Zutons and The Bandits and its in this climate that Brooklyn's The Boggs make so much sense.  Embracing the aesthetic and attitude that drives their Williamsburg peers like The Rapture and Radio 4, their riotous punk rock take on a genre, previously bound by the conservative reverence accorded it, is a joy to behold.

'Down Below' with its militaristic drumming, snarling Shane McGowan on acid vocals and pissed on moonshine guitar, is a stunning "sit up and take notice y'all" opener, that merely sets the scene for a set thats both visceral and reflective in equal measures.  Asking for quiet, the haunting 'However' in particular, performed solo by Jason Friedman on the custom Bogg's battered acoustic guitar, echo's with the spirit of Mutations era Beck to show that there's real versatility and depth to this epitome of New York, exhibiting a different kind of rawness and vulnerability.

Punctuated by Ezekiel Healy's frantic dueling banjo's, the set reaches a fitting conclusion with a 'new one that we're just about to return home to New York to record' that see's grown men "grab their partners by the hand" to create the perfect soundtrack to New Years Eve in an Irish pub plonked somewhere in the southern comfort deep south.  Perfect!!

Photos by Sakura Henderson