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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Dumptruck Butterlips

DUMPTRUCK BUTTERLIPS
The Stiefel Theatre
Salina, KS
© Lydia Lowe 9/16/2012




Dumptruck Butterlips .  .  . This band opened for Railroad Earth at The Stiefel Theatre on Sunday night.  Knowing this was a college band from Lawrence, KS. I wasn't expecting very much.  After hearing the first few lines of the first song, though, I was hooked.  Their sound is like nothing I've ever heard before and that is saying something.  Butterlips, on the keyboards and accordion, is the perfect complement to Dumptruck's acoustic guitar.  Megan rounds out the group on bass. 

They started out their set with "Little Angel" which began soft and slow but with an unusual keyboard rift.  The middle of the tune picked up the pace, eventually winding down, returning to the soft and slow tempo it began with.  It can best be described as fluttery.  I got this image in my mind of a butterfly flitting between flowers.  Their music has a dreamlike quality to it.  Hard to characterize and describe.

All three musicians sang a cappela on "Darlin" and their voices blended perfectly.  I know they had to have practiced that but it just seemed so natural and easy, like there was nothing to it.  The mark of a good musician is when the difficult looks easy and this group pulled that off effortlessly.

"Bustin' the Streets" and "Just as Bad as You" rounded out their set.  Both of these songs had their trademark style. The words and the music blend into unusual harmonies for their unique style.

I browsed their website and they're self-described as "gypsy hippies" and that is a perfect description.  Their look and their music is from another time and place, yet firmly fixed in the present.  It has a timeless quality.   Go check this band out if they come to your town.  They are really going places.  

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