Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band Announce Auckland Headline Show

Crowd pleasing rural blues punks Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band have announced a special headline performance at Auckland’s Tuning Fork this February, following recent news the US group will be playing at Splore Festival 2018. The group are retuning after two years to play tunes from their new album Front Porch Sessions, expect a foot-stomping and fun evening of high energy mountain music, blues and ragtime. In his element live, charismatic frontman Reverend Peyton is famous for playing specially customised instruments adapted to his rural lifestyle, you can check out a sampling of his inventiveness in the clips below. Here’s the info…

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
Friday 23rd February - The Tuning Fork, Auckland
Ticket presales available from 11:00am, Friday 8th December

Here’s the clip for the band’s popular favourite ‘Raise A Little Hell’…

Here’s Reverend Peyton playing guitar with a shotgun…

Check out this clip of Reverend Peyton literally playing his axe…

Press release:

Live and direct from Beanblossom, Indiana, Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band return to Auckland to deliver a super fun night of punk-fuelled, ragtime, folk, rural blues at The Tuning Fork on Friday 23 February 2018.

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band’s debut NZ tour in 2016 won over audiences with the exceptional slide guitar skills of the Rev himself along with his wife, “Washboard” Breezy Peyton’s rhythmic washboard strumming accompanied by some boot stompin’ drums. Music reviewer Marty Duda reported, “It was clear from the way Peyton spoke about his custom-made instruments and his own songs that the man has a deep love for what he is doing. By the end of the 15-song show, so did his audience”.

The Rev. Peyton is very much looking forward to returning to Aotearoa, saying "Last time we were in New Zealand, we were welcomed with a Māori haka, we fished, we swam in the clear blue water, and we made amazing friends. It's going to be tough to beat that first tour, but we are so excited and we are going to try”.

The Big Damn Band has won a large and loyal fan base the world over, thanks to their great sense of humour, high-energy showmanship along with nine acclaimed albums and tireless touring efforts including all of the big festivals; SXSW, Glastonbury, Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, High Sierra, and Warped Tour. With nearly 6 million combined views of the Rev playing his Shotgun Guitar (true story), there is much to learn about this band!

This upcoming Tuning Fork show will be part of the band’s world tour in support of their 2017 album, Front Porch Sessions, that has garnered critical acclaim including praise from American Blues Scene magazine calling it, “a revelation...an amazingly well crafted, controlled explosion of talent”.

For the uninitiated, some listeners have a hard time believing all of the Rev.’s extraordinary guitar performances are recorded live with no overdubs — until they see the Big Damn Band in concert. The Rev explains, “Because I play finger style, I play the bass and the lead guitar at the same time. The washboard almost fills the space, almost like rhythm guitar, so between that and the drums and me, you don’t feel like you are missing anything from a band that has five or six people”.

“I’ve been obsessed with the idea of taking fingerstyle guitar to a place it’s never been before”, the Rev. says. And he’s gotten there by blending the foundational playing of great country bluesmen like Charley Patton, Furry Lewis and John Hurt with the early-rock vigour of Chuck Berry. Like The White Stripes and The Black Keys, this turbocharged band is able to translate the spirit of those seminal masters into the 21st century.

Don’t miss your chance to spend a magnificent summer evening a hootin’ and a hollerin’ with the fantastic Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band.

Playing Tuning Fork, Auckland Friday Feb 23

and Splore Festival, Tapapakanga Park - Feb 24, 25, 2018

“The tent revival, almost punk energy of the Big Damn Band is a refreshing splash of coldwater to the face.” — Living Blues

“With his wife, Breezy, serving as a one-woman amen corner, and Max laying down the floppy-boot-stomp drums behind Peyton’s spiky, waspish National steel slide guitar on tracks like “Something for Nothing”, the result is a peculiarly infectious blues crusade, touching on themes of money, morality and social responsibility.” – The Independent (UK)

“The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band is a twenty-year-old bourbon in a room of vodka Red Bulls and PBRs; vintage yet timeless, exciting and still welcoming…” –MXDWN.COM