I went to a show last night in Springfield, IL. It was a band I've seen a few times before, Kentucky Knife Fight. The show had 2 openers I'd never seen before (The Maintenance Men, Brandon Carnes) at a venue I'd never been to before.
The venue was Donnie's Homespun. The Springfield location opened in the Fall of 2012. It was a cool venue; restaurant by day, music club by night (I had dinner before the show, a chicken philly, very tasty). The restaurant and bar was upstairs in a balcony setting overlooking the lower level which featured the stage and another bar. I recommend checking it out for anyone in the Springfield area.
The first act, The Maintenance Men were enjoyable. A two piece band consisting of a drummer and a singer/guitarist. They had a good sound with rock and blues influences. I couldn't find any information online, you may be able to.
The second act was Brandon Carnes. An acoustic singer/songwriter from Springfield. To me, he sounded a few years out of date. I personally didn't enjoy his set, but that's not to say you won't. I did find some dated sites online for him, such as profiles on Myspace and Reverbnation that looked like they hadn't been updated. Perhaps most of his songs were from a few years ago, which could explain their sounding dated.
The headliner was Kentucky Knife Fight. I've seen them multiple times in the past. They were my "college band". I attended Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Kentucky Knife Fight played the end of every semester at The Stagger Inn along with various other shows in the St. Louis/Edwardsville area. They always put on a good show with their rockabilly sound. They won the Riverfront Times Award for Best Rock Band in St. Louis in 2011 and 2012, and have been touring a bit the last couple of years. I recommend their show for anyone who likes rockabilly, southern rock, or just rock and roll. They played some new material I hadn't heard before, including "Love the Lonely" (which they currently have a video for, and said would be on an album in March) along with standards like "Wild Irish Rose" and "Herschel Walker". "Love the Lonely" fits right in with those and I'm sure will become a standard at their shows. The new songs were very strong and showed that they've grown as a band and musicians.
I had a good time at the show and plan to attend more shows at Donnie's Homespun in the future, and I'm sure I'll be seeing Kentucky Knife Fight again.
www.donnieshomespun.com/
http://kentuckyknifefight.net/
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