Reverend Horton Heat w/ Split Lip Rayfield & Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers – RIBCO, Rock Island, IL (11.10.10)
Posted by Aaron Titan on 11.12.2010
Some of the loudest country music 411’s Aaron Titan has ever seen!
On a whim, I heard that the Reverend Horton Heat was plowing throw the heartland this fall, so I said, “Hey, I liked that song from Guitar Hero 2! Why the fuck not drop $20 and check it out? RIBCO does have an extensive beer selection after all!”
So my friend John and I cruise to Rock Island, IL, jamming to the sounds of Gamma Ray’s new album, and enter the club beer garden to the sounds of loud music, the smell of cigarettes, and the sight of the most heterogeneous crowd of rockers, hipsters, and country bumpkins I’ve been a part of in quite some time.
First up were Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers, a band I’ve clearly been missing out on for quite some time! These guys meld country music and southern rock sounds with punk, thrash, ska, folk, and anything else that reeks of whiskey and kicks massive amounts of ass.
The group, led by the thrashiest harmonica wielder I’ve ever seen in frontman J.D. Wilkes, brought a fast, 45-minute heavy-hitting set of their ‘A’ pluses in what I truly thought was the best overall set of the night. Wilkes’ onstage antics includes some improvisational facial expression work, robot dancing, and double stacking his hat on guitarist Duane Denison’s head. Honors must also be given to the powerful rapidity of Brett Whitacre’s drumming as well!
My friend and I had the chance to chat for about ten minutes with the Shakers upright bass player Mark Robertson, a true southern gent and a class act. We spoke about his life on the road and upcoming plans for 2011, which include recording the next Dirt Daubers album with Wilkes and Wilkes’ wife Jessica and touring on it for most of the year.
I also got to chat for a bit with J.D. himself, who had just finished slamming a shot of tequila, the odor of which wafted through the outdoor autumn breeze and made me glad I had chosen to roll with my IPA draft instead. Wilkes was also a great guy and posed for photos with us. I told him about our little website here, so J.D. and Mark, if you’re reading this, I just ordered Cockadoodledon’t and you guys are my new favorite band! One of the best live sets I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing!
Next up was Split Lip Rayfield. In talking with one of their merch representatives outside the club, we learned that Jeff Eaton’s one-string upright bass was made from the tank of an old seventies car, and fuck, did this guy beat the holy hell out of that thing for the majority of Rayfield’s highly energetic, yet southernly soulful set. Rayfield is rounded out by Eric Mardis, the fastest banjoist I’ve seen live since John Butler, and the equally swift Wayne Gottstine on mandolin. Mardis and Gottstine shared the majority of the lead vocal work, though all three came together and crooned out some pretty respectable chorus harmonies.
Not only is Eaton ‘green’ by recycling an old car gas tank for his instrument, he also hand prints the tour concert posters and his band’s greatest hits album cases on old PBR boxes. One concert attendee that I spoke with said, “That’s so fuckin’ cool, but where’s the 24 beers with it man?”
Then we had the main event: the Reverend Horton Heat. The Rev has been singing songs of Texas, cigarette smoke, and alcoholic beverages for over 20 years, and what I mostly noticed at this show is that the guy has a very niche audience. He’s a hell of a guitar player, but after each subsequent song, it just kept feeling like…more of the same. Quirky repetitive lyrics, diddies on the guitar after verse lyrics, solo, bridge, solo, something, solo, repeat. On top of that, the drumming was comprised mostly of the same high-hat and snare beat song after song after song. Nothing inherently wrong with it, but just not enough variety to whet my appetite.
Don’t get me wrong, it was an entertaining set and all, just not my most favorite cup o’ tea. The Rev can sure banter crowds with the best of ‘em, and he definitely didn’t walk around with a sense of entitlement. He was working his ass off on vocals and guitar to earn the crowd’s respect, which he certainly did.
The 411: Overall, this was a very fun show. It’s not often that I go to a show and end up loving the opening acts more than the headliner, but then again, I went to this show on a whim without any expectations…and I left with two new bands – new to me anyways – to explore the discographies of. A good night out and if this tour is rolling through your neck of the woods before it wraps for Thanksgiving, I highly recommend checking it out.
