The Devil Makes Three seduces the audience

By Debby Vasquez

Corsair Staff Writer

The night was filled with a buzz, the audience was filled with a buzz, and the show was filled with a buzz like buzz. Why? Because it was all about The Devil Makes Three. This band from Santa Cuz, California was going to play at the hipster infested Echoplex as it was low lit decorated with colors of red, green and blue. Old Man Markley opened the show, a rockabilly band consisting of washboards, fiddles, mandolin and washbucket bass and fiddle.

Then the Devil Makes Three took the stage. They are a hard band to put into a genre.  They mix and infuse everything from bluegrass to ragtime music to country, folk, old time music, and rockabilly. These elements might make them sound to the untrained Devil Makes Three ear as "southern music" but their sound is quite unique with simple music formulas, great sounding guitars, wonderful harmonies and innovative lyrics. Their music is almost reminiscent of the working class music of yesteryear with toe tapping, hay rides, and country dances, and a dress code consisting of jeans and work boots.

Not one song went by that nobody sang such as tunes like "Graveyard" and "Old Number Seven." Halfway through the set, they kicked it up a notch when singer Pete Bernhard changed guitars and put a slide on his finger and started shredding on his guitar.

They certainly did not disappoint as they played crowd favorites and pioneering tunes like "Cheap Reward" and "Beneath the Piano."

The Echoplex and the Echo crowd would not easily forget this show.