The alt-country, all female, Lafayette, Louisiana based acoustic vocal ensemble returns to New Orleans for their first show in New Orleans since 2008 at Chickie Wah Wah on Friday night. It is The Figs’ only New Orleans show of the year and one of three performances scheduled in 2015. Louis Michot of the Lost Bayou Ramblers opens with his new band, Michot’s Melody Makers.
The Figs features five vocalists, all singing together on nearly every song. The instrumentation of band includes drummer Paige Pemberton, bassist Melissa Stevenson (who occasionally blows the harp as well), Sarah Gray and Caroline Helm on electric and acoustic guitars, Claire Oliver on claw-hammer banjo, and Jillian Johnson on tenor ukulele.
The group began as a low-key jam session between like-minded musicians in 2006. They created a sensation based on their impeccable vocals and danceable grooves, which mine Cajun, folk, and bluegrass styles. The band released their eponymous debut album (currently out of print, but available as a digital download) on Eunice, Louisiana’s Valcour Records, self-released their second album, What Keeps Me Up at Night, played sporadically for a few years, and then went their separate ways.
They reunited in 2011 and are back together again (at least for the time being). Their most recent performance was a triumphant set at Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette in April 2015.
Local writer Allison Fensterstock previewed the band’s last performance in New Orleans in Gambit Weekly with this pithy sentence: “The all-women sextet The Figs looks like a country-time tea party of pretty girls in pretty dresses, but it rocks, Cajun-style, like a roadhouse full of moonshine and buckshot.”
Showtime is 9 PM.
