Dustbowl Revival
Words: Sean Moore / Photos: Kelsey Riordan
Friday night, a combination bowling alley and concert venue was transformed into an Americana dance party as the California-based band Dustbowl Revival brought their electrifying live show to Portland, Maine. This show was extra-special as it happened on the release day of their brand new album Is It You? Is It Me? which finds the band slightly shifting their sound to be a bit more focused and soulful. If Friday’s show in Portland showcased anything, it’s that the crowds show up ready to dance and party. The vibe was “party,” all night.
The opening band was another Americana/folk band, local to Portland called Sibylline. Led by Hannah Daman, the band brought their unique, often harmonized sound to the stage at Bayside Bowl. With the Martelle sisters accompanying on mandolin and violin, as well as Dan Capaldi on drums and the recent addition of Ian Riley on bass, the band is very well rounded and had the room rocking to their loud folk songs for the first 30 minutes or so of the night. Sibylline is the exact type of band you want to open your show to energize the crowd, and that’s exactly what they did with songs like “Wild One” and “Far,” along with quieter ones like “Backwoods.”
The lovely Heather Maloney came up and performed an intimate, solo acoustic set. The crowd remained rather quiet for the entirety of Maloney’s set and listened intently as she told a few stories in between songs. She played a Darlingside cover and absolutely nailed the vocals usually harmonized between the four men in the band. Liz Beebe joined Maloney on stage for a couple of songs, which the crowd thoroughly enjoyed.
Dustbowl Revival, a six-piece band, came out with some slow jams to start their set, including the incredibly smooth and sweet “Honey, I Love You” from the 2017 self-titled album. It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since that album came out, but for a band that has toured relentlessly, building up their fanbase by word-of-mouth and jaw-droppingly energetic performances like Friday’s show it’s easier to understand how they haven’t had time to get in the studio. Which makes the story of their new album interesting, having been recorded in a short two-week span, it is a wonderful representation of a band evolving their sonic sound. When the band played new songs like “Dreaming,” “Enemy,” “Runaway,” and “Sonic Boom” the crowd was fully behind them, enjoying every minute of these new songs, singing along even though the album had only been out less than 24 hours.
According to Lupetin and Beebe, the new album was a bit “scary” to release as it has some “important things to say, given the state of affairs in our country right now,” as they explained before their very politically-driven tune “Get Rid of You,” which was inspired by the Parkland High School student activists.
It was really great to hear some of the band’s old tunes, but I was happy to hear the new songs as the highlights of the setlist. This is a band that puts 100% into each and every performance and Friday night was no exception. Each member is an integral part of the band that makes their live performance so electrifying and exciting. It will be great to see the band really take off into more of the mainstream with the new album, because of how gorgeous the arrangement of the songs is, but also because this is a band with something important to say.
