Oklahoma City’s Johnny Manchild and the Poor Bastards, the band that refuses to be labeled or put in a musical box, played a show in Raleigh, North Carolina recently. They visited the Pour House Music Hall and Record Shop in downtown Raleigh. It was there first visit to the area. The band draws inspiration from multiple genres including punk, soul, rock and more. Johnny takes all of that and bounces around from form to form on his albums, thus making it really hard for critics to label him. I think he likes it that way, even though critics hate it when they can’t label or define something. The setlist was heavily favored songs off of his latest album Rapture Waltz, which is a great album and deserves to be heard. “Fake Me Out,” “Oh Songbird” and “Better Unsaid” got great crowd reactions. Johnny alternated between playing guitar and stand-up keyboards throughout the night. The band sounded amazing and it was an all around fun show! If you have a chance to go see them, please don’t miss out on it.

I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price