The Pentagram String Band comes out of Kansas City with a thesis: that the darkest threads running through American folk (the murder ballads, the Appalachian haunts, the blues recorded at the edge of the map) were always the honest ones, and everything since has been politeness. They play gothic folk, punk, and thrash metal on acoustic instruments, and the combination makes a strange, persuasive kind of sense.
About the Show
The band, led by frontman Johnny Lawhorn on banjo alongside Dustin on bass, has been building this sound since forming in June 2019, releasing four studio albums along the way: Buskers’ Boneyard (2019), Trash Compactor (2020), Ten Godawful Ballads from the Hopeless, Strange and Ill-fated (2021), and most recently Blood Blood Blood, released in August 2023. That record (seven tracks, available on vinyl, CD, and digital) delivers raw vocal performances against acoustic arrangements that one reviewer called “sophisticated subtlety in their instrumentation,” a quality that places the band closer to Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Murder By Death, and Amigo the Devil than to anything on a mainstream country playlist. Press has described their sound as “an unholy merger of Appalachian folk sounds and Norwegian black metal tendencies.” When Lawhorn was asked to describe the band using pizza toppings, he offered this: “Take a plain cheese pizza, throw it off a building, spit on it, and leave it in the trash can for 3 days.” The Pentagram String Band has been carrying that aesthetic across the country — 23 documented shows across more than a dozen states, including stops in Chicago, Atlanta, Austin, Minneapolis, and Providence, with two performances in the Netherlands.
Venue & Logistics
The Bug Jar is a 120-capacity bar and live music venue on Monroe Avenue in Rochester, in the Finger Lakes region, that describes itself as a music discovery destination: local and touring acts, small room, close stage. For a band working in acoustic instrumentation, where every detail in the arrangement matters, 120 seats is the right scale. Doors at 7:00 p.m., show at 8:00 p.m. Age policy: advance tickets are available to those 18 and older, but patrons ages 18–20 must purchase before 12:30 p.m. on the day of the show; entry at the door is restricted to those 21 and older.
Tickets
Tickets run $17.70–$20.79 and are on sale now. Buy tickets