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Party Down with The Last Revel

Award-winning Minnesota folk-bluegrass band coming to Whitefish March 6

By Molly Priddy

It wasn’t until after their brief time on the stage in a field near White Sulphur Springs, when the Red Ants Pants Music Festival was over for the day, that the band members of The Last Revel realized they had made a breakthrough.

“After we played on stage, everybody had great things to say to us,” Ryan Acker, who sings and plays banjo and guitar for the band, said. “We told them, ‘We can’t play more [on stage] but we’ll play later in the campground’ … A couple minutes into us playing at our campsite, there were 100 people surrounding our campsite.”

The Last Revel, a three-man folk-rock-bluegrass band from Minnesota composed of Acker, Lee Henke, and Vinnie Donatelle, was part of the popular and growing Red Ants Pants Music Festival last summer, and won the emerging artists competition.

Winning the contest has given the band more name recognition, they said, and has given them the opportunity to play additional shows around the country. Now, Flathead music fans will have the chance to see the band live at Crush Lounge in Whitefish on March 6.

It’s an opportunity to see the group as they continue to climb the ladder of success. Before the music festival last summer, The Last Revel was used to filling up smaller venues, including packing the house at the open mic sessions where they got their start.

By the time they showed up in Montana for the festival – the first time they had played in the state – they realized they had completely misunderstood what they were supposed to be doing there.

They had signed up to play the show, Acker said, but expected to play a 45-minute set, not the 15-minute slot they got.

“We didn’t know it was a contest until we got there,” Donatelle said.

Instead of panicking or complaining about the smaller timeframe, the band decided to take the opportunity to just rock out on stage.

“At that point it was almost like a freeing moment to accept it and just let it rip. I think that was our saving grace, it was such a free performance,” Acker said. “There was no pressure, it was a let-it-go, we-have-nothing-to-lose kind of thing.”

Listening to the music The Last Revel has already produced, it’s easy to see how they could perform especially well at such an event. Their three-part harmonies evoke stirrings of early, deep-rooted folk music, and their instrumentals are sharp and complementary.

Much of their music is sing-along worthy and danceable, giving it the appeal of an Americanized version of Mumford and Sons. Along with Acker, Henke sings, plays guitar and banjo, and adds the harmonica and stand-up bass. Donatelle rounds out the vocals, plays the stand-up bass, and the fiddle.

Still, the band was surprised at their own success.

“That was a weird thing; we don’t win a lot of things,” Donatelle said.

By winning the emerging artist contest, the Last Revel will be on the main stage for the 2015 Red Ants Pants Music Festival, Acker said, which will provide for even more opportunity for exposure.

The band also found funding for its new album through a Kickstarter campaign, and the new music is expected by May. Touring full time – the band spoke to the Beacon while driving to a few gigs in Colorado – and getting ready to drop a new album has the band extra busy, but other than a lot of driving, there’s little to complain about.

“Things are kind of taking a good step for us in 2015,” Acker said. “Red Ants Pants, the main stage for 2015, that’s our biggest national spot we’ve ever had. It’s a big step for us and it opened up a lot of doors.”

As for the Whitefish show, the high-energy trio ensured a good time for the audience, with original tunes and plenty of chances to dance.

“We’re rowdy, but we also can bring it down,” Henke said.