Lil Band O Gold- Regal Ballroom

On Thursday night I went down to the Regal Ballroom to see South Louisiana supergroup Lil Band O Gold perform live and it was a great show, especially the performance of drummer/vocalist Warren Storm who is an icon in the swamp pop genre, he was one of the true pioneers of that style of music. The band also features guitarist/vocalist C.C Adcock who is a very underrated guitarist, a true finger picker and heavily influenced by the Louisiana Hayride style of guitar playing from the late 50's. The band featured songs from their new album Lil Band O Gold Play Fats a tribute album to rock and roll legend Fats Domino. Warren Storm has an amazing voice, very soulful and expressive but also very relaxed like his drumming, he has that loose feel where he almost plays behind the beat but he is never out of time, his playing has a real funky feeling to it very similar to someone like Levon Helm. The band has a multitude of vocalists with C.C Adcock performing memories from their debut album Promised Land. Accordian player Steve Riley did a great version of the Tommy McClain classic Before I Get Too Old a song that was enhanced by the great lazy drone of Dickie Landry and Pat Breaux on horns. Keyboard player Dave Egan did a rocking version of the old John Fred classic Shirley with some storming boogie woogie flourishes.

The Band then dipped into the Clifton Chenier songbook for their unique take on some cajun standards, the beauty of this band is that the music has that good time feel that is such an intrinsic part of the South Louisiana scene but the playing is never lazy this band is tight and totally in sync with each others playing. Warren Storm did a terrific version of his classic Prisoner's Song from 1958, people should also check out the b side to that song Mama Mama Look What Your Little Boy Done which is a great slice of Louisiana swamp pop. The only criticism of the performance was when local singer and You Am I frontman Tim Rogers took the stage and did an exaggerated version of I'm Walkin and followed that with a bizarre version of Led Zeppelins Whole Lotta Love which saw a lot of people walk out. This closed out the show and it was  a little disappointing to end what was a great show on that note.