Bourbon & Beyond 2026 - Line 6 (Father John Misty, Max McNown, The Fray, Squeeze, Cheap Trick, Marcus King Band)

Father John Misty

One Liner: Excellent lyricist making droll observations as he saunters about
Wikipedia Genre: indie rock, indie folk, folk rock, chamber pop, progressive folk
Home: L.A.
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  Another dude I have already written a few words about:

• Moody Amp.: Sept. 16, 2025
• Review of Mahashmashana
• Review of Chloe and the Next 20th Century
• Preview for 2018 ACL Fest
• Review of Pure Comedy
• My recap of his 2015 show at ACL: "Father John Misty.  Wins the emotional fire award for sure.  I bet he dropped to his knees in apparent overwhelming emotional pain 50 times during the show.  The knees of his pants were literally grey by the end of the show.  Even though that was a little distracting, he put on a hell of a show. Clearly sang his lyrics (which is the main reason to see the guy) while using the entire stage and making it an event.  He went down to the audience a few times, spun the mic on its cord, shuffled and swayed, it was fun to see him goofing while singing his somber lyrics.  As I figured, "Bored in the USA" was freaking brutal, just so powerful and convicting.  When the crowd joined in to the laugh track near the end of the song, I thought I was going to tear up.  But then I pounded some more Tito's brand Handmade Vodka with my Drake-approved Sprite and looked at my iPhone 6S brought to you by AT&T instead.  Great show."
• Preview for 2015 ACL Fest
• Review of I Love You, Honeybear.

The funny thing over the past year or two is that TikTok has made "Real Love Baby" into a big hit.  It's got 516 million streams (crushing all of his other tunes), and yet was never even on one of his albums.  Just a tossed off single that captured the algorithm.  My middle kid used to play it all the time, which was disorienting, and then some pop band at ACL last year covered it, which was even more disorienting.  

His show is good, but it is not really for the casual.  There are not exciting lights or fireworks, its pretty much him just stalking around up there and seeming both intense and laconic at the same time.  It is good, just know what you are getting into.

Max McNown

One Liner: A measure of cheesy country and an equal measure of scrubbed-up folk
Wikipedia Genre: Country, folk rock, Americana
Home: Nashville (now, originally from Bend, OR)
Day: Sunday

Thoughts:  This guy must be a big deal to be up here among very popular things.  Never heard of him.  My initial reaction to his first few songs was very negative - cheesy Nashville crap-ola - but if you just let his tunes roll for a while, you get through the TikTok bait and into something a little more real.  Like, "Better Me For You (Brown Eyes)" just feels plodding and manufactured for clicks and singalongs where the crowd is holding up their cell phones with flashlight on.

Funny thing, when I read his name, I was like "wasn't that a quarterback for the Bears?"  Close.  Cade McNown, this kid's uncle, was drafted by the Bears in the first round in 1999 (and only played there for 2 years).  Why does my brain retain these things?

His most streamed tune has a Marcus-Mumford-covering-a-Noah-Cyrus-song vibe.  "A Lot More Free" has 277.5 million streams.

A little stomp and clap, a little whistle, and you've got a hit.  "World Change Me" sounds like a song featured on Yellowstone (non-complimentary).  And earlier when I said something more real, I'm not saying it is the greatest music I have ever heard, but kind of what Noah Kahan could sound like if he had an army of producers and songwriters at his side.  Not in love with it, but not truly terrible either.

The Fray

One Liner: The How to Save a Life guys
Wikipedia Genre: rock, alternative rock, pop rock
Home: Denver
Day: Thursday

Thoughts:  When I think of the Fray, I immediately think of Grey's Anatomy.  I never finished that show, but their brand of blandly pretty pop rock felt like the exact match for that show.

Isaac Slade (vocals) and Joe King (guitar) met at Faith Christian Academy in Denver and started making music on the side of their praise band work at local churches.  They found two more guys doing praise band stuff and formed up.  "Over My Head (Cable Car)" was their first big single, and is apparently in part about how Slade's younger brother was asked to leave the band and that frayed their relationship (see what I did there?).  It got some local radio play, a lot of people called in asking about it, and they ended up signed to Epic Records.  Pretty good!  Their subsequent debut album was released in 2005, with that same song being the lead single.  But it was definitely eclipsed by "How to Save a Life," which currently has a whopping 1.6 billion streams on Spotify.  

That stream count seems wild.  It isn't bad, just a Coldplay vibe, but that is so many streams.  Album went 4 times platinum, in part thanks to the Grey's tie in.  Critics were less excited about them apparently - AllMusic said they lacked originality.

Their second disc was also very popular, even if the critics again were not on board.  "You Found Me" has a buttload of streams as well - 702.6 million.  But Rolling Stone called the album "nothing new."  Ouch.

Interestingly, Slade has now left the band and owns a record store.  Now, Joe King has taken over the vocals, which I think will be weird.  The band feels like they are very much tied to the sound of Slade's vocals.  Listening to the newest release - 2026's A Light That Waits - I hear that new Killers album - they are remaining earnestly cheesy, but the vocals are very different.  I doubt I'd go see it, but who knows how the schedule will work out.

Squeeze

One Liner: "Tempted by the fruit of anotha!!" One banger and then some other pleasant new wave pop.
Wikipedia Genre: new wave, pop rock, post-punk, power pop
Home: London
Day: Saturday

Thoughts:  I MEAN COME THE HELL ON?!?!  "Tempted" is a stone cold classic.  Funny thing though, after that, I recognize "Black Coffee in Bed" and maybe "Up the Junction," but I certainly don't really know the rest of this catalog. When I saw their name on here, I was convinced that this was about to be a row of hits, but I think I was thinking of The Outfield.  So, I want to dig in to these guys.  I recall people having the greatest hits compilation called Singles - 45's and Under - the cover looks familiar, but I don't recognize many of those songs.

They came together in 1974, meaning that they are now approximately 300 years old.  Lead singer Chris Difford claims to have stolen 50 pence from his mother's purse to put an ad in a local sweetshop window for a guitarist to join his band, although he had no band.  Glenn Tillbrook was the only person to respond, and so they began writing songs together.  They later added Jools Holland on keyboard, which is only interesting because he's an actual media star over there.  They used several terrible names first, such as Captain Trundlow's Sky Company, before settling on Squeeze as a facetious tribute to the Velvet Underground's poorly regarded album Squeeze.  For a while they had to be called UK Squeeze, because of other bands that used the name, but they appear to have won out over those other losers.  

Their second album had their first major hits - "Cool for Cats" and "Up the Junction," each of which hit #2 in the UK.  Album three (Argybargy) from 1980 sounds sort of like XTC to me.  But it was their fourth album, 1981's East Side Story, that had the big hit.  Co-produced by Elvis Costello, and I think you can hear some of that in there.  72.8 million streams.

I truly love that song.  Those background dancers suck mondo ass at dancing to the beat behind him as he is singing.  I think it is the middle one.  Anyway, the bassline, the chorus, the white-boy-soulness, the weirdly deep singing of the rhythm guitarist, the "bip! dip! didipdip!"  It is so great.  And a renaissance in the mid-90's because of the Reality Bites soundtrack.  That is the second band on this poster with a connection to that soundtrack.  We need to add in Crowded House, World Party, and The Knack!

Unfortunately for our heroes, they broke up after a 1982 album was poorly received.  They reformed in 1985 for a charity gig and decided to give it a go again, and during the next ten years the lineup rotated constantly other than the two original members. In 1998, Difford bailed, and Tilbrook kept it going until breaking up the band again in 1999.  Uuuuuuntil 2007, when they went for it again and reformed to tour America.  They are continuing to do so, with a random cast of bandmates surrounding the two original dudes. 

And maybe some foreshadowing: "In September 2019, Squeeze were joined at the Louisville, Kentucky Bourbon & Beyond Festival by ex-Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters front-man Dave Grohl on drums, for a performance of the 1982 hit "Black Coffee in Bed"."  Hmmmmmm.

Cheap Trick

One Liner: "I WANT YOU, TO WANT MEEEEE!"
Wikipedia Genre: rock, hard rock, power pop
Home: Rockford, Ill.
Day: Saturday

Thoughts:  I feel like this is going to read like an American version of the story told right above!  Except that these guys have many more major hits.  Five of their top ten are immediately recognizable to me - "Surrender," "The Flame" (two versions), "I Want You to Want Me" (two versions), and "Dream Police.  Plus an entry on the damn Top Gun soundtrack (which I did not identify by its name, but absolutely remember).  C'mon.  This is fun.  Also, in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and cited by artists like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Smashing Pumpkins as an influence.

Did you know, because I did not until just now, that the little clip in the front of the Beastie Boys' song "Come Together" where it says "this is the first song, on our new album" is from the end of the "I Want You to Want Me" version played live at Budokan?  That is cool.  Also, if we are here for random observations, their original album had some whack song titles, like "Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School," "He's a Whore," "Taxman, Mr. Thief," and "The Ballad of TV Violence (I'm Not the Only Boy)."  That is a lot.

"Surrender" is still the top track, which Rolling Stone deemed "the ultimate Seventies teen anthem" (ranking it number 471 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2010 and number 365 in 2021).  287.6 million streams.

Loogit those dirty hippies on that cover!  Great song.

They were originally named Fuse, and then for two years went by the truly terrible name of Sick Man of Europe.  They apparently took on the name Cheap Trick after seeing another band play and saying that they used "every cheap trick in the book" for their act.  Strangely, their first two albums, including the one with "I Want You to Want Me", were not very popular at the time and didn't sell very well.  But in 1978, they went to Japan on their tour, and the crowds reacted like the damn Beatles were in town.  The band recorded the shows, and the tracks from those shows were compiled into Cheap Trick at Budokan, which immediately went triple platinum and launched them into stardom.  Weird, right?  Nobody gets famous for their live album.

So, the classics are fun and sound great, but I am trying out their most recently album - 2025's All Washed Up" - and the lead singer sounds like he is really struggling to push his voice to the limit.  All wavery and shit.  So, not entirely sure that we will be getting the same experience as we might have at Budokan in 1981.

Marcus King Band

One Liner: Hot guitar licks from a southern soul rocker
Wikipedia Genre: blues, southern rock
Home: Greenville, SC
Day: Saturday

Thoughts:  I have a picture with Marcus King - after he played an opening set at Antone's and then walked through the crowd, I troubled him for a quick pic.  The wife made fun of me for the picture, because I was going through a phase of pointing at the person I was being photographed with.  That show was one of those moments - like, an involuntary reaction from seeing someone absolutely blow your mind.  Of course, my long-suffering wife is like "yeah, I hear it.  Sure, he's real good" as I am over there elbowing her in the ribs and pointing and mouthing "holy shit" and "do you hear that?"  Coming up on 25 years of wedded bliss, folks.  Anyway, the man can handle the guitar.  Damn good.  Kind of an Allman Brothers vibe, and when I see him it makes me think of the blind guitar guy from Road House.

Four albums - 2015's Soul Insight (which has a jam-a-licious song called "Booty Stank" on it), 2016's The Marcus King Band, 2018's Carolina Confessions, and 2025's Darling Blue.  He's stepped up the company he keeps too, with cameos on the new album from Noah Cyrus, Billy Strings, and Jamey Johnson.  It's all pretty solid - if you like southern rock with a heavy dose of guitar hero, then this is your jam.  Top track is "Rita is Gone" with 44.9 million streams

Going live version there so that you can see the flamboyant action in the flesh.  I would definitely go and watch him again.