Futurebirds have such a lush sound; with three guitars (and/or banjo) plus a pedal steel, perfect harmonies, good drumming and solid bass lines, they just sound textured all the time, shivery and terrifically Southern — the accents, the steel? I don’t know — I’d love to see them tour with Band of Horses, I think they’d be a perfect match.

In the middle of their set, they absolutely slayed a cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”, which isn’t a song about which I would have ever said, hey, Futurebirds should cover that, it would be awesome, but it totally was. Even creepier than the original, which is a tough standard to meet, but holy cow, it was awesome. I really, really do love a great, deep-cut cover like you wouldn’t believe; if Futurebirds needed a path straight to my heart (which they don’t, because they already had one), that cover would have done it.

I snuck in to the 506 five minutes before they started and left five minutes after they finished; unfair to headliners Lonnie Walker, who I really do want to see one day (and soon), but holy cow, I was exhausted. I did see a hippie being arrested on my way out of the 506, though. That was new and different.