The Shoot Dangs bring ‘Bluecrass’ sound to La Potato Saturday night

Toward the end of the hey dey of the last incarnation of the Spenard music scene, the Shoot Dangs were regular performers at what was then the Tap Root.

Since the Shoot Dangs first assembled in 2013, Tap Root, the iconic Anchorage music destination went the way of the dinosaur, giving way to the short-lived Route 33, a spot now inhabited by La Potato, which in concert with the rise of the Carousel Bar and Church of Love, is helping re-revitalize the Spenard scene.

The Shoot Dangs, fresh off a tour in the Lower 48, are back in the venue for the first time since it’s latest reincarnation, sporting their unique blend of bluegrass and punk, an amalgamation they’ve dubbed ‘Bluecrass’.

“That’s the best spin on the bluegrass name we could come up with,” said Timmy Johnson, who plays banjo, bass, guitar and vocals. “It’s the best essence of acoustic and it’s also the spirit of the band in one word.”

The Shoot Dangs got their start in Anchorage six years ago, but ended up relocating to Fairbanks as the band changed members.

“Our frontman Johnny (Lungs) and the girl who used to play banjo a long time ago, we met up at open mics, actually, at Tap Root and Sitzmark in Girdwood,” Johnson said. “We’ve been on a couple of tours — one from Georgia to Texas and all the way back. We did a passage in California, where we did Burning Man — that was good to open up for bands like the Young Dubliners.”

Johnson said the band’s sound — a considerably more aggressive take on the usually genteel sounds of bluegrass — came about organically.

“It just kind of happened; we gave everyone an instrument and they played. The frontman writes the songs a majority of the time and they’re all original,” Johnson said. “It’s just a mixture of outlaw and acoustic and raw music. We try for them all to be great songs, and we have a lot of fun and tell a lot of Alaskan stories.”

Songs like ‘Six Shooter’ and ‘Hell on Wheels’, available on reverbnation.com, are good introductory pieces to the band’s mission.

“It’s just the tension of government and society and the general breaking free of everything in lyrics. The bluegrass is the the feel and the sound to it, so the energy is the mix of the two… We’re not necessarily political, not like System of a Down or Rage Against the Machine, but it’s definitely a message of ‘stick it to the man,’” Johnson said. “It’s kind of a head-turner; a lot of people haven’t heard anything quite like it, so it takes them a second to be comfortable with it before they start jumping, We try to play at venues that are pretty fitting, too — small bars in western towns.”

Johnson said the favorite venue he’s played is the Golden Saloon in McCarthy, which happens to also be owned by the owners of La Potato.

“It captures the spirit that inspires us to write the music we do,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the band is currently working on its second album and is hoping to get a music video off the ground shortly.

“We’re working on some sponsors on it and we need about 5,000 cigarrettes to make it happen,” he joked.

Saturday night’s show at La Potato gets started at 9 p.m. and runs to 1 a.m.