Surrounded on two walls with the digital distractions of sports, and a back wall of an open casino floor housing hundreds of flashing, blinking, twirling and swirling slot machines, Warehouse prepared to put on a show featuring a strong line-up of cover tunes featuring classic rock of the most epic form. They followed Moechester, a reggae-influenced rock and roll band featuring a bevy of original tunes.

 

Bluesy Southern-fried rock and country filled the lounge and flowed out over the technicolor rainbow of slot machines with names like Black Orchid, Sumatran Storm, Bam!, Lucky 88, Diamonds of Athens and Dolly while the lever-pullers sat transfixed, oblivious to the fun jumpin' and jivin' only a few yards away. Classic rock standards from Chuck Berry, The Doors, Johnny Cash and the Allman Brothers, among many others, got a thorough play, enhanced with a nice chunk of harder guitar, making the songs, if not fresh, at least theirs. It wasn't a straight-up jukebox set, by any means.

 

About two-thirds of the way through their set, they invited the guitarist from Moechester to join in. At this point they kicked it up a notch… or four. The two guitars began an almost frenetic partnership, turning covers into jams, showcasing skills and the unabashed joy that musicians can have when they're given freedom to just play - in both senses of the word. Eventually, the guest guitarist returned to the audience, and the band finished out their set.  It was obviously getting late, because the singer's girlfriend came on stage for some eye candy and general screwing around.  

 

The crowd had been filtering away all evening, as the witching hour neared, and the guys loosened up even more. Throughout the night, couples had been dancing, usually a single pair at a time for some of the tunes.  Now that the alcohol had settled in, and the audience was thinner, three and four couples began to dance, and helped the band close out the evening in a very enjoyable way, while keeping Warehouse energized to be playing for an appreciative audience.  Given the real sparseness of the crowd by the midnight close, it would have been easy for the guys to begin phoning it in, but they gave it their all, right to the very end.

 

If you're ever up Rochester way and have a hankerin' for live action classic rock, Warehouse will definitely satisfy your cravin'.