A Monday night may not be the best night to go out drinking and dancing in Columbia, South Carolina, but that didn’t stop over 200 people from heading out to Headliner’s for some old-time string music courtesy of Old Crow Medicine Show. The band had just gotten finished playing the Bonnaroo Festival and had a cancellation so the show was only booked about 5 days in advance. I’ve been to Headliner’s a number of times and while it isn’t the best place to see a band, it’s not horrible. The problem with the room is the room itself…it’s too damn big with the sound often feeding back or echoing back from the high ceilings. The only band that I’ve seen there that seemed to deal with the room rather well was the Drive-By-Truckers who just cranked up their amps to 11 and played like they were at an outdoor event to the delight of the 500 plus crowd.Â
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On this night Old Crow wasn’t quite what I expected. I had thought the show would be a bit more spontaneous and rowdy but it was mostly subdued and contrived. The band seemed to stick to a pretty tight set list carefully throwing in crowd pleasers such as “Cocaine Blues” and “Wagon Wheel” at the appropriate moments. While most of the band appeared to be having an all right time, fiddle/harmonica/singer Ketch Sekor was the only one to really dance around on stage. Bass player Morgan Jahnig, decked out in his plain white tank top, did rock back and forth a bit, but that was about all the movement you got. On the 6 string banjo (or guitjo) was Kevin Hayes who looked as if he’d rather be anywhere but on stage never cracking a smile and reminding me of one of the Darling boys from the Andy Griffith Show.  The fiddle was mixed a bit high for the first set but that was corrected during the break. Overall the sound was tight and polished.
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After the first set the boys took a 15-20 minute break and an enthusiastic young female fan bought the five guys a round of bourbon. Their tour manager quickly gave the shots back to her stating that they don’t drink. Soon thereafter, a chorus with the lyrics, “Drink the corn liquor let the cocaine be” came around. They encored with “Lay Lady Lay.”Â
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I’ll give them another shot if they come around again. Let’s just hope they were worn out from Bonnaroo this time.Â
About the author: Producer, Engineer, Musician and all around music enthusiast.