BAND OF HEATHENS, BRUCE HUGHES at Saxon Pub 9-23-08

This upcoming weekend is the 2008 Austin City Limits Music Festival. It's held every September at Zilker Park, 8 stages and 130 bands. My friend Bruce, from Southern California, arrived yesterday so I took him to the Saxon Pub to see the Band of Heathens. We ended up staying to see Bruce Hughes, too.
I had heard Band of Heathens once before during SXSW. They were part of a Sin City event held at Maria's Taco Express. Really enjoyed their brief set that day so I was looking forward to hearing more of them.
They are a 6 piece band with 3 guys who all play guitar, write and sing. Each writes in a unique style so the music is very different depending on which one is taking the lead. They do a lot of harmony vocals which I love. They are country rock with obvious ties to The Band and Little Feat. They added a keyboard player and this was his first show. We thought he really added lot of soul/funk. Hope they keep him around!
Their self-titled debut record is on my short list. It was produced by Ray Wylie Hubbard, with Patty Griffin adding vocals to one song.
We knew Bruce Hughes as the former bass player in Bob Schneider's Lonelyland band. What I never remember is that he was an original member of Poi Dog Pondering and played with them the first 5 years they were based in Austin.
When Bruce started setting up and Scrappy Jud Newcomb walked in we were very happy we stayed. He is one of Austin's best lead guitarist's. He's played with a number of people including Bob Schneider, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jon Dee Graham and Ian McLagan. On bass was Harmoni, who replaced Bruce as the bass player when he left Lonelyland! Now here they were together. She's also played with Fastball, James McMurtry and Jon Dee Graham, among others. Conveniently, the Band of Heathen's drummer stayed on stage to play for Bruce, also. A fellow named Mark joined them on keyboards. His day job is either a producer or engineer because Bruce Hughes said he records everybody in town. He used a theremin (think the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations) which added some wild techno sounds to the music. The music was described best by my friend, Bruce, who called it Philly soul. That was perfect. We both enjoyed this group.