Randy Bailer, the lead singer of Punch Drunk Cabaret who performs as Randal X Bailer, will be watching the sky closely at 10th annual Dog Patch Music Festival in Loon Lake.
The event goes ahead July 26-28 and Bailer is hoping history won't repeat itself when a sudden downpour washed out their first performance at the 2016 festival.
"It was so random because that was an absolute beautiful weekend," recalled Bailer.
"There was no suspicion or rain or anything in the forecast. We just noticed the sky was getting dark as we were setting up and thought it would just pass over.
"From the first note, it was just an absolute downpour that lasted for about 40 minutes; the performance really was obliterated."
Punch Drunk from Central Alberta is hoping to complete this year's 45-minute set of original music to a loud round of applause without thunderclaps.
Bailer says any time on stage shorter than that makes it hard to create what he calls the arc of a show.
"I tried to build a set list like a story line or a novel where you have a beginning, a middle and an end and you're taking people through all different moods and emotions with all kinds of opportunities for them to participate in it," he said.
The group's sound is billed as a high energy cocktail or rockabilly, steampunk swing and garage blues.
"One of the things people find appealing about the band is that mix of music," said Bailer.
"We've just always moved the target on genres. That's served us really well because it has appealed to such a wide variety of people."
The band includes bassist Teddy Roy who's been onboard for seven years and newcomer Rob
Ducharme, a percussionist and keyboard artist.
"It will be a good mix of the new and familiar when we perform on the 26th," said Bailer about his band and music.
He notes with a festival, it's hard to please a majority of people because it's such a mix of demographics so they always add an element of surprise to ensure fans are never sure of what's coming next.
"We'll play a couple of rockabilly swing songs and then we'll turn the corner on it and we'll play a cover song or some pop hit from the 80s. Quite often we'll hear, 'I didn't see that coming'," he said.
Punch Drunk released a new video in January and expects to release a new single and video this fall.
"We have a lot of music to draw from because the band's been around for 10 or 12 years," said Bailer who loves the Dog Patch festival.
"There's quite a few festivals where we played that are a lot more on the corporate side, but the Dog Patch is really based around community.
"There's a real support for artists from the area. We feel a lot of gratitude to the festivals that have brought us back over the years, because there's so many artists out there knocking at the doors of the festivals."
Punch Drunk played at an outdoor festival at Vic Juba Community Theatre last May with a similar mix of original music and cover songs they will bring to Dog Patch.
"Anyone who was at Dog Patch and remembers us, we'll still be playing some of those songs. We still play music from our very first album right through to the fifth album," said Bailer.
At Dog Patch, they'll be playing music from their first album to their fifth.
"In our set there is always a mix of original music and then cover songs like you've never heard before," said Bailer.
Read More: Punch Drunk Cabaret to vibrate Lloyd
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