The French Irish Coalition

The French Irish Coalition live at Crunchy Frog in Green Bay, WI

By TJ
January 15, 2010
Any refuge from this cold winter will do, but if you're on the prowl for live music, good beer, and a shot of Jameson to warm you up the Crunchy Frog on Broadway Ave will more than do. It was here that I caught a set by the relatively new band The French Irish Coalition, a drum and guitar power duo from Green Bay. The French Irish Coalition are loaded with a bunch of Delta style and a few Mississippi River drenched blues covers. For the most part their hour long set was original. I noticed right away that this isn't the blues as usual and especially not the delta blues as usual. It is loud, distorted and explosive and can be about as straight forward as punk rock. Julian plays on a classic Fender Telecaster armed with a metal slide and an amp that has only one knob "Volume." No really, there is only one knob on the amp! Most of The French Irish Coalition tunes have a very retro feel with the vibrato and wah wah pedal on the guitar matched with some gritty vocals. Julian sings with almost a punk rock ethic with the attitude to match. What the French Irish Coalition bring to the show might not be far off from a Charlie Patton day dream or a Chuck Berry nightmare, add some nostalgic sounds and rhythms of the crossroads back when there was more of a progression from blues mixing with country music and you have an idea. There was a good variety of rhythms from a country shuffle to full on rock.

Backing up Julian is Travis Pashek on the drums. Travis digs in deep on the kit adding a bit of funk and power drumming to Julian's blues riffs. I was keeping an eye on Travis and noticed he was adding these stick tricks, bouncing them off the drum heads and catching them in mid air! For a drummer, that is pretty risky but for me it was fun as hell to watch. Julian's guitar playing technique can also sometimes land him on his playing on knees when they really get into rocking the songs out. It is allot better to see some moving around stage vs the "stand in one place and sing into the microphone" show. The French Irish Coalition bring Rock and Roll back to its deepest nostalgic period in history but immerse the sound into the heart of today's electrified heads of punk rock and roll. With a mix of old and new genres this band is now being branded on the street as "Warehouse rock," a larger and more raw sounding music than garage rock. Julian Routheaux's creative writing and distorted slide guitar touch base on the delta feel and that's about it from there they take it away into a current sound with distorted guitar, wild solos and lyrically a bit of angst on the everyday struggles of mankind. It was a damn good show especially for a new band in the area. Take listen on The French Irish Coalition reverbnation page where they have The EP "Pistols and Daggers" Free for MP3 download or Check out their myspace page. You Can catch them playing this Saturday Jan 16th at IQ's Food Music and Art in Green Bay.

More Green Bay Band Reviews