On Friday night at the Mohawk Place, the small stage was strewn with strange instruments. Everything from the banjo to the bass, from the violin to the washboard made an appearance.
The Asylum Street Spankers were in Buffalo.
There is perhaps nothing more refreshing than a cowboy with a washboard strapped over his chest, ready to jam for an eager audience.
"Hello, Buffalo. How the f-ck are you?" front man Wammo asked jovially, in his cowboy hat and Elvis T-shirt. "We're the Asylum Street Spankers from Austin, Texas!"
They opened with the peppy "Some of These Days" from their latest album, "Mercurial." Delightfully enough, Christina Marrs' lovely voice at the Mohawk Place does not differ from the lovely voice heard on "Mercurial."
"Here's a song about drugs," announced Wammo, leading into the second song. Rarely seen without a Heineken during the entire performance, Wammo lead a popular chorus.
"Beer, beer, beer, we love beer! My favorite drug is an ice-cold beer," he sang to raucous applause.
The Spankers consistently balanced out their slow songs with the fast, manipulating the crowd's energy without exhausting it.
"This is the best example of music that doesn't relate old and new to good and bad. Everything has value," said Kevin Gaynor, a sophomore at Buffalo State College said.
Wammo's running commentary held the audience's interest.
"Got to be some mullets in this town," he said, before divulging a poem he had read in the men's bathroom. The band also invited the audience to come sit up on the stage and in front of it, to make sure they had enough room.
Halfway through the first set, the Spankers played a jazzy song from the newest CD, called "Digga Digga Do." After each member had fooled around with his or her respective instruments, Wammo grabbed a kazoo and belted out the Star Wars cantina song, placing a smile on almost every face in the bar. Afterwards, the Asylum Street Spankers grooved their way into a brand-new song entitled "Whiskey Love Song."
"Like a rock star on Viagra / Like a president with a barn / Like the end of a crappy novel / I'll sing you my whiskey love song," sang Wammo.
Indeed, a more unique aspect of this concert was how the wickedly amusing lyrics were punctuated with constant hoots and laughter. Different band members got a chance to lead a song. Marrs and Wammo sang most frequently.
The crowd had been alternately sitting close to the stage and dancing feverishly. Jaws dropped as Marrs took a violin bow and began playing the musical saw.
Wammo introduced "Hick Hop" by explaining how similar he thought country murder ballads and gangster rap were.
"Hi-ho Silver! Whoa Trigger!" he and Sick shouted as they made various rapper stances and gestures. Wammo also mocked popular artist Nelly, crooning, "It's gettin' hot in here" at the end of the song. While scathingly humorous, "Hick Hop" is also remarkable in its creative combinations of genres.
The Spankers then delved into politics a bit with "War on Drugs."
"We've got to get that son of a b-tch out of office," said Wammo.
"We're winning the war on drugs, we're winning the war on drugs! Praise the Lord and pass the bong, we're winning the war on drugs!" they chanted.
"Is Metallica still here?" he asked. "Exit light!"
By this point in the second set, the crowd had largely increased, and was now more evenly comprised of middle-aged jazz lovers and teenage punk rockers. After a loud country song that involved much clapping and stomping, guitarist Nevada Newman snapped a guitar string, and determined to make the best of a bad situation, picked up a bottle of beer with a bemused smile.
"Why Do It Right?" was an argument against conformity.
"Why do it right when you can do it wrong? / Why wake up and sing the same old song? / Why do it like all the others do? / Why let them get to you?"
Perhaps the most astonishing moment of the evening was when the group launched into an acoustic, country version of "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails, inserting various animal noises in place of the word "animal".
Then the Spankers eased into a hilarious doo-wop number called "Got My Mojo Workin'," incorporating Christina's strong, sultry voice with choreographed dancing from some of male members.
They ended the evening on "Tight Like That," but the charged-up crowd would not stop stamping and shrieking until the Spankers returned for one more song for the whole group to sing along to, "Wet Spot."
Concertgoer Sarah Swinarski summed the performance simply:
"It's my new favorite groove."
