Most people have seen blues bands play; the drums, the thumping bass, the lead guitar’s chords lamenting the pain of its player. Well, you won’t be seeing that when blues band Mo City Jumpers plays at Magoon’s Saturday.

Rather than a lead guitar, the band’s sound revolves around a piano. Bass player and lead singer Mark Montgomery — who’s joined by pianist Jim Bisman and drummer Marc Caplan — said the focus on the piano is a nod to the band’s Kansas City roots.

“It came out of necessity, because we kind of wanted to feature the music of Kansas City,” he said. “The way to do that was the piano, because of the great piano influence a lot of Kansas City artists have had.”

Montgomery listed Jay McShann and Count Basie as two influences.

Having a piano rather than a lead guitar also sets the Mo City Jumpers apart from a lot of blues bands in Kansas City, because almost all choose to focus on the guitar.

“There’s a lot of people playing blues on the guitar, but piano is an instrument that lends itself to a lot of different styles,” Montgomery says, “like to play dirty ‘ol blues.”

And the Mo City Jumpers’ sound is deceptive when it comes to their arrangement. Many people don’t realize a guitar is missing.

Barry Woodhall, owner of Magoon’s, says the Mo City Jumpers’ music isn’t as hard or heavy as some of the acts he’s brought it, meaning people can sit back and have a conversation while they’re listening to the music.

“I just like their style,” he says. “It’s a little more laid back.”

But that doesn’t mean their style of blues will be any less lively, or entertaining.

“It’s not the mainstream,” Montgomery says. “We do a lot of the same songs, we just do them with a piano instead of a guitar.”