40 Acres
6/8/07
Rams Head Live

John Allen has been a fixture on the Baltimore music scene for many years now. He was first known as the drummer for one of the best hard rock bands in the area, Child’s Play, which was signed to Chrysalis Records for a brief period before getting dropped, lost a singer, regrouped, and then went their separate ways. Allen went on to join SR-71 and he is still the band's drummer, but over the past year or so, he has been playing with his new band, 40 Acres.

If you’ve never seen 40 Acres live, shame on you. The band is a ballsy, gutsy, gritty mix of punk, pop, and power. 40 Acres mixes glam rock with punk to create an interesting mix of hard rock heavily influenced by everything from John Lee Hooker to Iggy Pop.

On June 8, 40 Acres played a free after-show party at Ram’s Head Live. Allen has this amazing charisma onstage. He’s a small guy with loads of attitude and he puts a lot of feeling into his music. At some points in the set Allen put his guitar aside to be lead singer for the night, like during the song “Burn”, the biggest track from 40 Acres' debut CD and the one which has received the most airplay on Baltimore radio. The band finished their set up with a cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”.

40 Acres played a really great set of explosive rock songs. The band is worth checking out. Allen and company pack a ton of power into every show they do.