The Cigar Store Indians are Back!

For a band that hadn’t appeared together in at least five years, it seemed like little had changed. The Cigar Store Indians thrilled a SOLDOUT show at Smith’s Olde Bar Saturday (Aug. 18, 2012) night. Ben Friedman was back in front … Jimmy “Low Note” Lavender was back on lead guitar. On drums, the always precise, Matt Spaugh from Sonoramic Commando. On bass, was Atlanta music scene veteran, (“Blue Jays”) Jay Murphree. Friedman called Murphree “the glue” that brought the band back on stage after a half-decade absence. The beer-soaked crowd literally packed the upstairs room. Groups of fan stood arm-in-arm and sang (and shouted) along with their favorites from years past. As Friedman told “No Depression” magazine in 1998, “When you get onstage, everything else needs to be left behind,” he says. “The playing part is the best part of being in a band for me, the only thing that makes it worthwhile.”