2013 was a huge year for New Orleans rockers the Revivalists. When the local favorites take the stage at the Civic Theatre for tonight’s New Year’s eve concert, the show will mark the Revivalists’ first hometown performance since playing the Voodoo Music Experience in early November, as well as its first since making headlines for snagging a record deal from Wind-up Records — the largest independently-owned label in all of the land. As the band looks to celebrate the coming new year, it will likewise look to leave its mark on one in which it logged more than 150 gigs in the U.S., one in Canada and three in India. Shreveport, Louisiana gypsy-punk consortium Dirtfoot and Big Easy brothers-in-arms Cardinal Sons will this evening’s show.
The Revivalists headline the Civic Theatre's New Year's Eve concert tonight on a bill that also includes Dirtfoot and Cardinal Sons (Photo: Erika Goldring)
Making the most of its excellent, late-2012 short-player Make an EP, the Cardinal Sons — siblings John (guitar, vocals), Joe (keys, vocals) and Dave (drums) Shirley — established itself as one Louisiana’s most promising prospects. Over the course of the last 12 months, the band shored up its live set and debuted a pair of top-notch videos: the restless road-trip “Underdressed” and the trippy animated adventure “Young Guns.” In the wake of a monstrous 2012, veteran rabble-rousers Dirtfoot plowed ahead full bore through 2013, nabbing more than twenty grand from a Kickstarter campaign to support the release of its fourth album Coming Up for Air. The record, which hit the street in early November, features fellow Shreveport stalwart Papa Mali as well as New Orleans heavyweights the Rebirth Brass Band.
As for the Revivalists, the band performed at last year’s Best of the Beat Awards show where it took home an award for Best Rock Band or Performer, another for Best Rock Album (City of Sound) and a third for Best Music Video (“Criminal”). This year, the band is once again nominated in the Best Rock Band or Performer category, and singer David Shaw is among the nominees for Best Male Vocalist. After the Revivalists’ New Year’s Eve throwdown at the Civic Theatre, the band will head to Miami where it will depart for Jamaica and the Bahamas as part the sold-out Jam Cruise 12. In addition to headliners Les Claypool, Thievery Corporation and Bootsy Collins, New Orleans acts Galactic, Dumpstaphunk, George Porter Jr., Anders Osborne, Bonerama, the Mike Dillon Band, Cyril Neville, Terry McDermott and Billy Iuso will be on board for the seafaring holiday. Following Jam Cruise, the Revivalists are booked solid through mid-February with no shows slated for the Crescent City on its next swing. Though official word on a release date has yet to surface, Wind-up Records plans to re-release the Revivalists’ sophomore effort City of Sound accompanied with a live disc in early 2014. The label also looks to have new studio material from the band ready for the shelves sometime next fall or winter.
Tickets for the Revivalists, Dirtfoot and the Cardinal Sons’ New Year’s Eve concert at the Civic Theatre are available either online via Ticketmaster or at the box office for $20 apiece. The Civic Theatre is located at 510 O’Keefe Avenue. Doors open at 8:30 p.m., and the show will get underway at 9:30 p.m.
