The Cigar Store Indians

March 9, 2001

The Elbow Room

Ypsilanti, MI

This review is a little short because I didn’t catch the complete show, but I did see a good hour of Georgia’s Cigar Store Indians on Friday. I actually saw them play one other time while they were opening for the Squirrel Nut Zippers in Portland, OR in 1997. At that time I had no idea who they were, but I was real impressed by their short opening set, which was a mix of high-octane rockabilly, down-home country and jazzy swing. I hadn’t heard much about the band since then, but I was shocked to see that they were coming to play at Ypsilanti’s own Elbow Room. The Elbow Room is a dive of a bar complete with the toothless bartender and pregnant waitress, but it is actually a friendly and pleasant place to see a show or to spend an afternoon drowning your sorrows. Lately they have become known for booking rockabilly acts and a small scene of hardcore rockabilly fans have been attending their shows.

I showed up around showtime and the place was surprisingly packed with all sorts of retro looking hipsters dressed in 50’s styles dresses and high heels or rolled up jeans and greased back hair. It was quite a scene and everybody was obviously having a great time. Soon the opening act started up. I can’t recall their name, but they were pretty much a straight up rockabilly band from Michigan. They were enjoyable, but I probably would have preferred they just cover classic songs rather than play their own originals, which seemed to be lesser imitations anyway. During their fairly lengthy set the hipster crowd were all dancing up quite a storm. Apparently one night a week at the Elbow Room they have swing dance lessons and the lessons have obviously paid off for these people. I was pretty impressed with their dance steps and as I said before, they seemed to be having a great time.

After awhile the Cigar Store Indians took the stage to much applause. Apparently they had just done a long drive from their home in Crabtree, Georgia to make this show and they were fired up to be there. They commented on the coziness of the room and then launched into their set. They are a 4-piece band with two guitars, bass and drums. They really do traverse styles pretty easily sometimes within a single song. During one song they started out playing a basic Bo Diddley beat, but during the bridge segued into a country tearjerker type sound. The crowd was loving it and I was impressed with the band all over again. Unfortunately, it was well after midnight already so I took off before the show ended, but I will definitely try to catch these again. In meantime I will try to track down one of their CDs to see how they stack up to their great live sound.