BAEBLE CONCERTS: Two Gallants at Gramercy Theater

When an intensely, pondering poet, draped in a broken-in hollow body guitar and spewing red and raw vocals, as if choking on the sun-baked mud and dust of his subject matter, teams up with a hold no cheap shots (at least behind the kit) kind of drummer…himself awash in sweat, fighting off the rush of blood from his own battered fingers…the live result can only be something that tip toes on the overwhelming. Such is the case with Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel.

Though the two childhood friends hail from San Francisco, Two Gallants' performance at the Blender Theater at the Gramercy would have one believe they were bred on an utterly authentic, rural ruggedness. I suppose it's due to the way their agrarian blend of folk, blues, country, rock, and punk conjure up apocalyptic dust bowl images…think The Grapes of Wrath if you have to. And if you don't rely on such a picture, just know that such intense, tom tom driven folk thrash can set Midwestern hay bails ablaze all the way from New York City. - David Pitz