The Gertrudes

Holding a panoply of instruments on a tiny stage, country band the Gertrudes didn't seem to mind the lack of space, plucking out happy rhythms on their guitars, banjos, mandolins, and so on, with a stock of additional instruments on the side should the seven onstage prove insufficient. A ton of people were packed into the restaurant venue, with a line of wooden tables through the middle of the floor being inconvenient but somehow appropriate, as though the band were playing a barbeque feast. The Gertrudes were comfortably rag-tag, all singing along on songs about rivers, catfish and mothers, sounding like a more understated version of country brethren like Lake of Stew or $100.