As Jabe took the stage in the backroom of The Burren, I immediately realized that I had seen them before and my satisfaction on making it out to see some live music on a Friday night intensified. I hazily recalled a cold Winter's night at Tir Na Nog, another Somerville breeding ground for rustic tunes and relentless hangovers, when I saw this same stocky frayed-haired singer/guitarist and his counterpart on mandolin--who's as close to a near spitting image of most artists' conception of Christ as I've ever seen or imagined--lead their band through a foot-stomping set laced with the essence of American music's most traditional forms. Tonight was no different, as Jabe leveled a crowd packed like sardines in the neighborhood Irish music hall with a country rock/bluegrass hybrid, played with the velocity and high fever pitch of good punk. Manic, yet faultless drumming provided the combustion and infectious mandolin playing and fervent vocals supplied the color. Songwriter and frontman Jabe Beyer directed the barnstorming quartet through a collection of roots-driven, runaway train-like workouts, building chords into songs on his electric guitar and bursting forth with vocalized emotion, although Sean Staples' mandolin playing and on-stage theatrics stole the spotlight from the barroom bard more than once.

Jabe Beyer, relocated to Boston from upstate New York in the mid-'90s, began playing solo acoustic shows around town at cafes and small bars, developing a style all his own along the way. Eventually he formed his own band, named it after himself and has been touring like a madman ever since. Earlier in the year, Jabe released their second album, Outback Country Vampire, a fertile collection of songs worthy of the widespread local praise it received, but not totally representative of the live sound heard at The Burren. The album features ten different musicians alongside Beyer and showcases a fast and furious fiddle and a resonant banjo on many of the tracks. Staples' mandolin is suspiciously absent from all tracks but one. After seeing what this man can do with that little cousin of the guitar, I'd have to say that it's not only suspicious but quite unfortunate as well. If Jabe can pack this much energy into a live performance with four instruments, I must wonder excitedly at the possibility of seeing them with Staples plus a fiddle player and banjo picker in tow--Pure rockin' bluegrass action! -
Dan Cullity