Friday nights are for letting loose. For shaking off the work week. With that in mind, I, and 400 others, took to the Record Bar for revitalization.

Services began precisely at 8pm when Presley Haile walked onto the stage carrying an acoustic guitar. She was joined by partner Nick Brumley and his decorative banjo. If you're like me, you'll need a bit of a bio. It seems that the Central Texas native grew up on the stage, playing bars, open mics, and small festivals. That's where she drew the attention of Texas music legend Larry Joe Taylor. After a handful of digital singles, she signed a contract with Columbia. All before she was able to drink. She's still building her following one stage at a time. On this night the Generation Z kid with trademark heart stickers on her cheeks stared out at a full room, then launched into a hushed set, playing country-informed folk songs with just enough tumble to sit well with the Americana crowd. Her voice was generally soft, but capable of growing to a high, pleasing warble. Her fingerpicked guitar sat nicely beside Brumley's tumbling banjo. He climbed high up the neck for frequent notey solos and offered quiet vocal harmonies. Much of the crowd was busy having its own Friday night during the forty-minute opening set, but those up front coalesced around their unexpected new musical crush.

Providence's long-running Deer Tick shares some of the same predilections as Haile. Both are devotees of John Prine and have made his character-driven stories, sharp observations, and emotional honesty part of their shared liturgy. It's just that Deer Tick is also a rowdy bar band that can fire up an audience – something the outfit proved again and again during its two-hour set.

The band was led by vocalist/guitarist John McCauley with plenty of support from guitarist Ian O'Neil, bassist Christopher Ryan, and drummer Dennis Ryan. They all added vocals – occasionally stepping into the lead spotlight. Utility man Jeff Dazey joined the act for this tour, playing both keyboards and saxophone. Dazey brought back the roadhouse elements that had been missing since Robbie Crowell left the group in 2017. But, by sheer happenstance, Crowell was there too. Crowell now tours as part of Sturgill Simpson's band, which was in town for a gig at the arena down the street. This allowed him to slip over for a handful of old favorites and a run at "Kansas City" (the Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller standard) that recast the assemblage as a convincing jump blues sextet.

The act's long set drew from its entire twenty-two-year career. The crowd exploded early in the set for "Easy" and "Mange." O'Neil's vocal turn on the ballad "Hope is Big" showcased his tighter, strained vocals and gave McCauley a chance to play that infectious lead on an Irish bouzouki. As the set stretched out, so did the songs. Long intros, long solos, and plenty of space for jamming. The audience locked in. "Dirty Dishes" had the room jumping once again, while Ryan's vocals during "Sweet Dreams" had everyone cooing.

McCauley was loose throughout. His deadpan sense of humor was on full display, dropping corny jokes and letting them die (hilariously) onstage. He also offered a few introductions, but mostly he just smiled a lot. When it was time for an encore, he asked the house to turn off the PA entirely. The quintet then converged at the edge of the stage for acoustic versions of "Clownin' Around" and "Ashamed." The audience handled most of the chorus on the latter. For the finale, the acoustic Deer Tick covered Nirvana's "All Apologies." By that point the audience had been on a long ride, shared every emotion, and entirely forgotten that there were such things as corporate deadlines, reports, nasty customers, and sales quotas. All of that had been washed away, cleansed by honest live music and fans singing in unison.