Petunia & The Vipers bring two sets of old-time strangeness to the Axe and Fiddle

The Vancouver roots band plays Cottage Grove's Main Street pub on Tuesday, Nov. 3 — a weeknight worth the drive down I-5.

There is a particular kind of Tuesday night that only happens in a small-town pub: the dinner crowd hasn't quite cleared, the first set is already going, and somebody at the bar is trying to figure out exactly what decade the band is from. Next week the Axe and Fiddle in Cottage Grove gets one of those nights.

Petunia & The Vipers play the Axe and Fiddle on Tuesday, Nov. 3, with music running 7 to 10 p.m. across two sets, according to the Eventbrite listing. The pub sits at 657 E. Main St. downtown. Tickets are on sale now through that listing.

If you've never caught them, the band's own description is the most honest place to start. Their bio lists the ingredients as classic country from the 1920s through the '70s, country blues, western swing, alt-country rock, Mexicana, French cabaret, Romanian music, ragtime, jazz, punk and folk. That sounds like a list nobody could pull off at once. On a small stage, it mostly sounds like a band that has listened to an enormous amount of old records and decided not to choose.

At the center is Petunia, who grew up in rural Quebec and now lives in Vancouver, B.C., where the band is based. The current Vipers lineup, per the band's site, is Stephen Nikleva on guitar, Jimmy Roy on lap steel, Joseph Lubinsky-Mast on bass and Paul Townsend on drums. Lap steel and upright-style bass in a room this size is a big part of the appeal: you hear every slide and every slap.

The band has a real record behind the road show. According to their site, their last four albums as of 2018 each went to No. 1 on the Canadian Folk/Blues/Americana charts. Their most recent full-length listed on the news page, *Lonesome Heavy and Lonesome*, is described in their bio as perhaps their most sophisticated and varied release yet. That's the band's word, not ours, but it's a fair hint at what the second set might sound like once the room loosens up.

The Axe and Fiddle is a good fit for exactly this kind of act. It opened in 2006 in the historic Burkholder Woods Building on Main Street, set up, as the pub's own about page puts it, as a public house where people could gather to share a pint and conversation. The pub has its own stage, which suits a band like this.

It also isn't the band's first time through. Petunia & The Vipers were listed at the same pub earlier this year, which makes this something closer to a return engagement than a cold stop.

On a small stage, it mostly sounds like a band that has listened to an enormous amount of old records and decided not to choose.

What to know before you go: it's a Tuesday, it starts at 7, and it's two sets, so you can eat, catch the first, and decide whether you're staying for the second. (You probably will.) Kitchen hours on Tuesdays vary depending on who you ask, so call ahead if dinner is part of the plan.

For Eugene folks, it's about a 20-minute drive south. Go early, grab a table near the stage, and let the band figure out what decade it is.

Sources: Cottage Grove The Axe and Fiddle Tickets, Tuesday, November 3 (Eventbrite) (eventbrite.ca); Petunia & The Vipers — Bio (petuniaandthevipers.com); Petunia & The Vipers — News (petuniaandthevipers.com); Petunia Music (official site) (petuniaandthevipers.com); The Axe and Fiddle — About (axeandfiddle.com); Axe & Fiddle Public House on Eventbrite (eventbrite.com); The Chronicle — Axe and Fiddle Cottage Grove event listing (chronicle1909.com)