Halfway through the band’s first set, Rick “Cookin” Sherry, the leader of Devil in a Woodpile, lamented about the omnipresence of the internet, computers, and the binary number system, informing us, as if we hadn’t already figured it out, that their music was from the analog era.
Sherry’s vocal intonations also were decidedly old, unique, and lots of fun. And his fondness of simpler times is reflected by the fact that all the instruments he plays – clarinet, harmonica, kazoo, washboard – are acoustic.
I double-checked, and even the washboard has an electric version. I need to look further into that. It would take up a lot less room than my washing machine, and have fewer moving parts to break down, except my own parts might be more likely to break down from overuse.
Sherry kept mentioning that Helfer was on his way, and, just when we thought it might be a scam, despite the sight of the piano sitting untouched on the patio stage, Erwin appeared, walked past us, and then disappeared inside for another 20 minutes, eventually emerging, and, without a single word, sitting down and leaping, or rather easing, given his 85 years, into a soothing solo.
At an outdoor show where proof of vaccination was required and seating spaced out and limited, the only thing that was contagious was the revelry, the analog version of whoop-de-do.