The 4ontheFloor Rock Mountain Jam 2013, Offer Even More Reason to Hang Indoors

Even if it hadn't been raining like mad and cold as sin, the place to be on Thursday night (June 6) at Mountain Jam would have been inside Healey Brothers Hall. There, on the smallest of the Hunter Mountain ski resort's three stages, the 4ontheFloor turned up their guitars and radiated classic Southern gospel-inflected twang-rock warmth -- which is funny, since they're from Minneapolis.

Whereas most Mountain Jam bands seemingly read the fest's name and focus on the second word, showcasing their chops with twirl-inducing solos, the 4ontheFloor make like a mountain and rock hard, the way Hank Williams Jr. might were he to find himself leading the Cult. On tunes like 'Workin' Man Zombie' and 'Testify Your Love,' singer Gabriel Douglas proved a rare kind of beardo -- the type that neglects to shave only because he's too busy dreaming up mean riffs and writing lines like "There's a lion that sits on my bed / and lord knows he's never been fed."

That lyric, from opener 'Lionhearted,' recalls something another Minnesotan said about a lion in his pocket being ready to roar, and if 4ontheFloor -- who also covered Neil Young and the Beatles -- aren't quite as life-changing an act as Prince, they get major points for warming the cockles of many a soggy Mountain Jammer.