By Tony Serrao
Published: June 11, 2009
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The lead singer and fiddle/keyboard player, Brian Buchanan talked about another song from their new album “The Death of Johnny Mooring.” It was a true story, he said, about a fiddle player that was stabbed to death outside of a club near their hometown in Canada. Another song in their set (and also off their new album, “Broken Line”) based on a true story hit close to home for the guitarist, Trevor Lewington, about his grandfather's legal fight against an oil company for putting a pipeline through his land. Both of these songs had a somber quality about them that meshed surprisingly well with the rest of their more upbeat set on Thursday night.

ETH didn't spend the whole night promoting their new album (though it seemed like they were going to at times) as they treated their fans to a few older songs as well. Including one of their better known jams, “One Last Drink” off 'Soapbox Heroes,' which brought the energy of the crowd to a peak as some people sang along and nearly everyone clapped along as some in the audience got out of their seats and stomped the floor to the beat. Another song off an older album (a whopping 7 total since the band's inception in 1996) that seemed to strike a chord with the crowd was “Gasoline."

ETH joked with the diverse crowd about the Penguins' recent win over the Capitals as their next scheduled show was just outside of Washington, D.C. ETH also made multiple jokes about The Abrams Brothers and their young age. At the over 21 show at Club Cafe, The Abrams Brothers were by far the youngest group there with the oldest member, Nick, playing the banjo coming in at 19 years old. Nick is also the only American member of the Canadian band. It was interesting to see the band members playing their set with black X's on their hands because they were too young to drink at the bar. They also played the entire show dressed up, each wearing a tie or bow-tie and either a vest, suit jacket or both on stage. It made the band look older, but not old enough to drink. John Abrams, 18, sang lead vocals and played guitar as they kicked off their set in whirlwind fashion playing music from their album 'Blue on Brown,' available now on iTunes. The album is a Bob Dylan/Arlo Guthrie tribute album.

John's younger brother James Abrams, 16, played the fiddle with incredible energy as they covered the Guthrie classic “City of New Orleans” and “Oklahoma Hills.” The Abrams Brothers have been playing together since they were 9 and 6 years old and their cousin, Elijah Abrams recently joined the band playing the upright bass. In addition to the Arlo Guthrie songs, the set on Thursday included “Gotta Serve Somebody” and “Nashville Skyline Rag,” originally by Bob Dylan.

The Abrams Brothers have their own musical roots in many different areas including gospel and rock music, but the blugrass and folk influences were the most apparent. That's not to say the band can't play the more mainstream-friendly alternative rock music, they showed that they could on a few of their original tracks. It's just that the band focused on their strengths, which was the folk influenced bluegrass music. The crowd enjoyed the Abrams Brothers, but the energy in the audience was nowhere near what it would be when ETH played later in the show.

In addition to the Dylan/Guthrie covers The Abrams Brothers played a few of their original songs that were definitely more mainstream musical endeavors, if they keep playing more songs like “Melting It All” and “Planet of Seasons,” they will certainly be going places in the years to come. The biggest problem they seemed to have with the show was that they didn't play enough of their original music. This could have also been because there wasn't enough time in their set to play more original material. Look forward to The Abrams Brothers doing big things musically, at their young age and with the amount of talent that they have, there is only one direction for them to go: up.

The show on May 14th at Club Cafe was surprisingly good for the eclectic mix of ETH's self-styled “Explosive Canadian Celtic Fusion” music playing alongside The Abrams Brothers folk influenced bluegrass and rock. Both bands have a significant following already and will undoubtedly only garner more fans as they finish out their current tour on their way back home to Canada to take a much needed break.

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