Nitehawk’s May Country Brunchin’ presents John Wayne in The Searchers with a live pre-show serenade by Tatters and Rags.

The Searchers is an essential part of the western genre’s cinematic dialogue on the complicated foundation of North America. Three years after the Civil War, an ex-Confederate soldier (John Wayne) lands on his brother’s Texas farm just in time to find most of his family slaughtered and two of his nieces missing. After finding the eldest dead, he searches for five years for his other kidnapped niece, Debbie. And when he does ultimately finds her, his motives are seriously questionable. The Searchers really isn’t one of your feel-good westerns. Instead, it portrays racial issues between the “cowboys and Indians” as well as a rather ugly view towards women. Still, beautiful in scope and in Technicolor dreams, this epic film is one to not miss on the big screen.

Surprisingly, this is our first Country Brunchin’ film to feature the western genre’s man main, The Duke.

Tatters and Rags are at times a drone post-punk folk band, other times being a sweaty, whiskey-fueled electric honky-tonk band. Fans of the band state that their eclecticism is part of their charm, and it’s always accompanied by a frenetic energy that makes them one of the most exciting live bands in New York City.