Starkville’s Rick’s Café hosted Mustache The Band, an Oxford-based ’90s country cover band, on Friday. Nothing adds to the Mississippi college experience quite like a performance by Mustache. There is no better excuse for students to pull out their cowboy boots and Canadian tuxedos than a Mustache concert, in which students can sing along to hits by country legends, from Brooks and Dunn to Jo Dee Messina.
Lead singer and guitarist Alan Johnson, clad in boot-cut jeans and a life vest sans an undershirt, led the crowd for over two hours of uninterrupted country music. Being a marathon of a show, a Mustache performance takes the audience through country music’s heyday. Songs like “Strawberry Wine” and “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful” take students’ minds off impending exams and final papers and sends them to wide open spaces.
Not only did the band’s attire add to the outrageous tone of the concert, but the band also periodically threw out packets of black stick-on mustaches for the audience to wear, adding to the overall eccentric, yet excited, atmosphere of the night. The rowdy group invited students to take part in an exciting, one-of-a-kind country music experience with songs like “Dust on the Bottle” by David Lee Murphy and “Something Like That” by Tim McGraw, giving students the chance to dream about summers past and dance away the inevitable stress of academia.
Considering ZZ Top’s huge student draw on Friday night, the turnout for the Mustache concert was surprisingly large. Students pressed against the metal bars separating the audience from the stage, eager to get as close to the band as possible, but there was still plenty of room closer to the bar for the dance-loving spectators to swing dance. Rick’s Café offered drink specials and reached out to students via Twitter, inviting students to retweet promotions in order to win free entry to the show.
At closing time, the floor of Rick’s Café was caked with bushy, adhesive mustaches, indicating a successful night. The band gave a bow, a promise to their Starkville audience they will return to the stage at Rick’s Café in due time. Students interested in attending the next Mustache concert can visit the band’s Facebook page or bandsintown.com for tour dates.
