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April 11, 2015
Tryout nothing to cheer about: Local mother questions tryout process
April 14, 2015
A rock show with a country set list.
That’s the way this high-energy band from Chackbay describes itself. And would you expect anything different from a group called the Drunk Punch Ponies?
The name, although fitting for the type of show the band puts on, doesn’t have quite the story behind it most would expect. But that doesn’t stop the quartet from living up to its moniker every time they take the stage.
“It comes from absolutely nothing. It means nothing. It stands for nothing,” drummer Cody Thibodaux explained. “When we started, we were having trouble with a name. We couldn’t think of anything we all agreed on so we started asking friends, family, we started asking everybody we knew for input, and we ended up with a big list and started narrowing down.
“Believe it or not, that’s the only one we could all agree on. It sounds different; it sounds fun. People have trouble with it at first, but once you know it, it sticks,” he said.
Featuring country music covers from just about every era, DDP play classics ranging from Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” to hits by Eric Church and Jason Aldean, while hitting almost everything in between.
“[Young crowd members] want to hear what’s on the radio today The older people, they’re like, ‘What’s this?’ They don’t care for it,” Thibodaux said. “We’ll play Florida Georgia Line. It’s rap music with a country sound, but when we play that stuff, we can see the older people like, ‘What is this crap?’ Then we’ll come back with Tim McGraw or George Strait or something like that, and [the older crowd members] will come back, so we try to play a little bit for everybody
“You never know what the crowd is going to be like,” he added. “We do try to play to the crowd as much as we can. We try to keep it a good mix every time we go somewhere.”
Notably a party band, DPP can cozily throttle down into a slow groove, too.
Joining Thibodaux in the group is his brother Kerry, who plays guitar and sings lead, bassist Trey Clement and lead guitarist Dylan Delatte.
The band got its start two and a half years ago. Clement and the Thibodaux boys relocated to clubs after honing their skills in Cody and Kerry’s home.
“Out of the blue one day, Cody said, ‘Let’s start a country band. Nobody’s doing that around here,”‘ Kerry said.
After performing as a three-man set for more than a year, Cody was set to become a father. Before the band took some time off so the new papa could tend to the duties of fatherhood in his son’s first days, Delatte – a former member of another local band, Vintage – played a couple shows with the Drunk Punch Ponies.
“Some of our last few shows we played, we let [Delatte] come play with us, just pretty much goofing off, I guess. It sounded the best we ever sounded,” Kerry said. “So a few months later, we all started
really missing it. [Cody’s] baby was growing up, so he said, ‘We’re going to start it back.'”
As opposed to many bands who try to play as many shows as possible, The Drunk Punch Ponies usually only play a handful of shows per month as regulars at Thibodaux’s Olde Ice House, Houma’s Piazza Bar and L’Esprit Lounge in Larose.
“We don’t want to play every Friday and Saturday. We could if we wanted to. We try to keep it to one place every city,” Cody said. “Some bands, they’ll hit every little spot they can. When you do that, we find it wears it out. People won’t come as often. You can’t put 300 people in the bar every time you’re playing like that every weekend.”
From the infamous stage selfies to the nod to yesteryear’s hits to the ripping covers of today’s top country tunes, Drunk Punch Ponies is creating a local name for itself in the entertainment industry.
“Expect nothing you would expect from a country band, I guess.” Delatte said when asked to describe a night with DPP. “It’s real high-energy with all your favorite country tunes. Bars tend to sell a lot of beer whenever we play.”
‘We do try to play to the crowd as much as we can. We try to keep it a good mix every time we go somewhere.’
Cody Thibodaux
Selfies, such as this one, are as much a part of the Drunk Punch Ponies’ show as the music. See the band in action at drunkpunchponies.com or on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube. “We take like 50 selfies a show,” guitarist Kerry Thibodaux said.
