9pm • $20 • Tickets on Eventbrite and at the door if still available
Known for the marble facades, majestic domes and white mansions comprising its landmarks, Washington, DC is nonetheless a gritty, hardscrabble city built on a hot marshland and swamped in confrontational politics. Like their home turf, the Highballers are as sharp dressed as any modern country act -- but go down more like Jim Beam than the Diet Pepsi flowing through today’s tame, corporate country scene. In the tradition of outlaws like Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, not to mention mystics like Gram Parsons and the Knitters, the Highballers spin a web of country gold rooted in the diverse backgrounds of their members and the free-spirited abandon of the fiercest gunslinger in the Wild West. The Highballers were born on the rock of guitarist/vocalist Kendall Jackson and vocalist Hope Hudson in 2007, forging a hard-edged, rockin’ country sound built on the duo’s male-female vocal harmonies. After several personnel shifts, myriad gigs and more than a few empty whiskey bottles, the band arrived at its current lineup of Jackson, vocalist Belen Pifel, guitarist Sean Lally, bassist Charlie Henry and drummer Drake Sorey.