In a city like Los Angeles, home to musical stars in nearly every known genre, handing out the Best Live Band title is not easy. But the free-thinking local collective Dustbowl Revival's upbeat, old-school, All-American sonic safaris exemplify everything shows should be: hot, spontaneous, engaging and, best of all, a pleasure to hear. With a dazzling array of instrumentation — tuba, accordion, pedal steel, fiddle, clarinet, trumpet, banjo — they perform a sturdy repertoire of vintage numbers that run the gamut, from gospel and jazz to country and swing to blues. In a nutshell, Dustbowl Revival deliver the goods with an admirable combination of low-key charm and high-impact musicality. dustbowlrevival.com. —Jonny Whiteside
I like this band a lot but their shows are not spontaneous either in the song selection or interpretation departments.They play mostly the same songs each time with little improvisation (at least from my limited perspective having seen them three times recently at The Mint, where they're in the midst of a Wednesday night residency that ends this month but doesn't include next Wednesday, October 9th --end of plug). That said, their shows are a helluva good time!
