Wednesday for happy hour I spent a couple of hours watching Chip Hanna play acoustic at Last Exit. If you're not familiar with Chip, he's the former drummer for punk stalwarts U.S. Bombs and One Man Army, but currently he's honing his chops as a country singer/songwriter. That might seem like an uneasy transition - I'll address the relationship between punk and country in an upcoming installment of my column Revolver in the print issue - but Chip's a hell of a singer, with a range many troubadours would be jealous of.
I mention it because Chip's playing tonight at Mardi Gras, along with DJ Dana spinning country music (you can read about Dana in the column I wrote here). Seems like Mardi Gras is picking up a lot of the y'allternative/Americana acts that frequent the Yucca Tap Room and Last Exit; I think that's a good thing, there ought to be a venue outside of Tempe for that scene to frequent. I'll be down there tonight, if you haven't seen Chip or Dana before, you ought to be as well.
