Hill Country Revue, Sep. 26, Bluebird Theater, Denver.  A few things…

Some bands take a second to heat up.  This band, as soon as they hit th stage they were at 11. And they went up from there.

I didnt really care about the interminable guitar noodeling so I watcht th rhythm section.

Ed Hot Cleveland is ay fucking mazing.

Chris Chew is a brilliant master of ceremonies, the king of any room he is in, plays crazy licks on the bass like it’s nothin, and has fun all th time.

They named a song after themselves, which is awesome and ridiculous.  “Hill Coun-try/ Revue oo oo-oo/ Is com-ing/ Stomp your shoe.”

An indestructible sense of rhythm allows this band to do anything.

Poor Cody lost his dad 6 weeks earlier.   Certainly no grief in his playing tho—pure ecstasy.

“Hey Bo Diddley”—which became “Hey Hill Country” which became “Not Fade Away”—was the highlight for me. Evrybody sang a verse.  Chris’s verse was based on “Froggy Went A-courtin’”.

Electric washboard.  With reverb.   This sign hung from the microphone stand:

(Drawing is from memory.)

I’ve got a fever and the only prescription is More Washboard!

They sound even more like the Allman Bros than NMS Allstars do.  (I suppose it’s th double guitar.)

Seriously, one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen.

Addenda 10-06:

Jen points out that Ed Hot Cleveland is always ahead of the beat.  She’s right.   And I don’t like a driving, ahead-of-the-beat style as much as I like a laid-back, behind-the-beat one.  But it don’t change th fact that Cleveland is probably the best drummer I’ve seen live.

The band never took a break as a group.   None of that theatrical shouting for an encore. They had their set workt out so evrybody could take a break but not all at once.  So we got hours of solid music.

We got a very good return on our $15 investments.

music | live show reviews | ∞
2009-10-04 (Sun)