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The Hag and The Highwayman Hearten Horseshoe

Merle Haggard & Kris Kristofferson’s March 4th gig at Horseshoe Casino was billed as an “acoustic performance.” But, upon first entering The Showroom, the first thing I laid eyes on was a couple of Fender Telecasters sitting in their cradles. Good. Looks like The Hag and The Highwayman are going to sing more then just a few campfire country songs and, instead, give us a little of that Bakersfield sound that Haggard made famous many years ago. Maybe they’re feeling good tonight and waited to start drinking after lunch. Maybe that whole “acoustic performance” billing is the promoter’s insurance policy just incase these boys do decide to start drinking before lunch and don’t feel like standing up all night. Maybe. Who knows. Whatever the case was, it worked. Right off the bat, the feeling was we were going to get more than what we thought we would be getting from these 70-something year old country musicians.

So, after this suited casino employee / stage announcer came out and gave his best Michael Buffer “Are you ready to have fun tonight?” impersonation, the ceiling lights dimmed and the stage lighting took over. Then, moments later, before a raucous audience, Kris Kristofferson calmly walked out into the stage light with guitar in hand. An acoustic guitar I might point out. Also joining Kristofferson onstage were six other band members (whose real names I wish I knew) that consisted of a dobro player who looked like Junior Soprano, a young cat probably not older than 25 on one of two Telecasters, and a silver-haired fiddle player that resembled a young Del McCoury. There was also a keyboarder, an upright bass player, and a drummer to round out the rest of the band. Again, hardly an acoustic performance.

Before Kristofferson could lead into the second song, Haggard would suddenly appear from backstage, quickly making his way to the lone Telecaster still sitting in its cradle. He was dressed in a black pinstripe suit, and seemed eager to play as he waved to the audience and stepped up to his mic.

Even though Haggard’s rowdy and outlaw’ish days are long behind him, he still didn’t hesitate to play the songs that once defined that persona long ago, like “Mama Tried,” “Workin’ Man Blues,” “Daddy Frank,” and “Okie From Muskogee,” a song that was preempted by some candid comments by Haggard on how he misses Mary Jane and how his wife still teases him today with second-hand smoke. He also played a few of his later songs like “Runnaway Mama.” Pretty typical of what you should expect at a Haggard concert I suppose.

After his sixth song, Haggard finally introduced himself along with Kristofferson and the band. Not that anyone in the audience didn’t know otherwise, but it still came with much applause and enthusiasm by the audience.

Over two hours later Haggard and Kristofferson would conclude with a tribute to longtime friend Johnny Cash, with a cover of “Folsom Prison Blues,” with both Haggard and Kristofferson alternating on the verses and chorus. At the songs conclusion, Haggard and Kristofferson left stage almost as quietly as they both came on, even though their band kept playing an instrumental rendition of Cash’s hit for several minutes thereafter. There was no encore song, but I don’t think many people expected one after a two hour plus performance. I guess when you’ve been recording and touring for nearly a half-decade you gotta start cutting out some of the formalities, right?

** This review also posted at Louisville.com

Photos: C. Michael Stewart Photography

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Going gonzo at The Damned Things, All That Remains, Hellyeah & Buckcherry concert

I’ve got one thing I’d like to say upfront about the Jägermeister Music Tour, which brought The Damned Things, All That Remains, Hellyeah, and Buckcherry to Louisville on Wednesday, February 9th: “I’m glad it came, and I’m even more glad it’s over!” And I could careless if I ever see another metal show again, but I’m sure this won’t be the last because I just love observing the debauchery that goes along with these shows, just as much as you love reading about it.

And while the rest of the throngs of fans who packed in Expo 5 to near capacity, I’m sure they were praying to porcelain gods come the next morning. Jägermeister’s biggest contribution to the tour I suppose. Me? I’m just glad to have made it out alive, in one piece, not physically assaulted, with my camera in-hand, memory in-tact, and coherent enough to sum up the experience. No Jägermeister for me. Been there. Done that. No thanks.

One thing about metal shows these days is that you get an overdose of virtually anything you’d expect to get an overdose of. It’s a complete f**king annihilation and assault on all of your sensory preceptors, your liver, and sometimes your patience. There is too much booze, too little free space, too many decibel level breaches, too much visual stimulation (you know what I mean), too much temptation, too many incomprehensible vocal onslaughts, and too many crazy neanderthals running around acting like drunken monkeys. But that’s OK. That’s what makes it a metal show to begin with and that is exactly what everyone came here to engage in on this night. Speaking of which, Chad Gray, lead vocals for Hellyeah, while onstage, declared “This sh*t is f**kin therapy.” My guess is he wasn’t talking about Jägermeister in this instance, but then again you never know.

The Damned Things – Photo by Jason Ashcraft

Leading off the night was The Damned Things, a hard rock super-group consisting of members from Every Time I Die, Fall Out Boy, and Scott Ian from Anthrax. They’ve got an interesting sound, which isn’t as metalish as some might expect, but definitely a summation of who is in the band. While their set wasn’t necessarily aw-inspiring, given the talent within the band, it definitely wasn’t anything to grumble at either, although I think they will continue to get better if time allows it. It’s gotta be hard to keep a band together like this with all the other projects they may or may not be involved with.

All That Remains – Photo by Jason Ashcraft

All That Remains, an intense death metal act was up next. Now, I admit, I missed most of their set. But for good reason. The University of Louisville basketball team was in OT with Notre Dame on the road. And when Louisville Basketball is on TV, nothing else much exists. Sorry folks, I would’ve liked to have caught more of the musical ferocity that ATR demonstrated in their opening song, but the timing was just bad.

Hellyeah – Photo by Jason Ashcraft

Next came, what would turn out to be, the climax of the entire night – another supergroup – Hellyeah. Now for those of you that have lived in a cave the last four or five years, Hellyeah is a masterful concoction of former members from Pantera, Mudvayne, Damage Plan, Rebel Meets Rebel, and Nothingface.

Once Hellyeah took the stage, they owned it. The crowd responded to almost every note and word coming lead vocalist Chad Gray’s voice. Drummer Vinny Paul also took a moment to make a memorial shout-out to former bandmate, the late “Dimebag” Darrell Abbot, much to the audience’s appeasement.

Chad Gray of Hell Yeah – Photo by Jason Ashcraft

Hellyeah electrified the audience – most of which spent the entire time moshing and crowd surfing – with their southern-metal style of rock-n-roll. They only slowed the musical pace down once with their hit single and sing-a-long favorite “Alcohualin Ass.”

Hellyeah, hands-down, no questions asked, gave the best performance of the night. They basically proved that they should be headlining the damn Jägermeister Music Tour if you ask me.

Josh Todd & Jimmy Ashhurst of Buckcherry – Photo by Jason Ashcraft

So, by the time Buckcherry made it to the stage, they had big shoes to fill with what Hellyeah just brought before them. The bar was definitely raised, and I’m not talking about the one that the Jägermeister was coming from. On top of that, Expo 5, for some reason, had a noticeably smaller audience by the time Buckcherry made it to the stage. But, Buckcherry brought out their classic high-energy unique style of hard rock-n-roll to what was still a large crowd that hung around for them, and delivered a much-anticipated and sought-after performance.

Buckcherry – Photo by Jason Ashcraft

Josh Todd and company spent the entire set dancing around on stage and shedding another article of clothing as each song concluded. They took their audience on a ride through most of the music that made them who they are including “Sorry,” “Lit Up,” “All Night Long” and closed out the night with a rendition of “Crazy Bitch” mixed with some sampling of a few cover songs. No encore song though after that once the stage went dark.

In a recent interview before the show, I asked Josh Todd what Louisville should expect from a Buckcherry show. His response: “High energy. Low I.Q.” Well, Josh. Mission accomplished.

This review also posted at Louisville.com

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“The New Vintage” makes its debut with a good ole’ fashioned rock-n-roll show

Louisville’s newest original music showcase made its debut Saturday night to a packed house at Zazoo’s. Hunter Embry, the event’s founder, who is also a musician and journalist himself, featured his own band The Bad Reeds, along with Scott Carney from Wax Fang, and Cougar Express.

As Embry promised, the venue offered an intimate setting with stellar sound production. 

While all of the artists who performed were talented musicians who know how to write songs, the night went to Cougar Express and their arsenal of Gibson guitars, a vibrant stage presence and just some good ole’ dirty and loud rock-n-roll that was almost Led Zeppelinish in it’s delivery at times.

The New Vintage will take place weekly on Saturday nights at Zazoo’s and is sure to deliver some of Louisville’s best original artists given Embry’s close connection to the music industry. Next week you can catch a youthful band that made me appreciate the eclecticism of bluegrass music, The Whiskey Bent Valley Boys.

Meanwhile, here are some clips from last nights performances.

This review also posted at Louisville.com

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Ear x-travaganza draws a sell-out crowd for Jim James and other Louisville musicians at Headliners

Ear X-travaganza, the benefit concert for ear X-tacy, is now officially logged into the history book as another classic Louisville music show, but this time around, for more of a somber reason. Preservation. Everybody at Headliners didn’t just come together on this night to only help keep a little record store we call ear X-tacy in business. It proved to be more than just that. Everyone at Headliners on this night also came because, in helping preserve ear X-tacy, they also help preserve their own cultural identity, which is shared to the rest of the world via our city’s musicians, many whom would not be known if it weren’t for ear X-tacy. Over the years, this little record store has became more of a Louisville-landmark and meeting spot than just another record store. It’s living proof that Louisville is far different from other cities, and that originality thrives here in many forms. We’re not just another city whose streets and way of life is 100% dictated by popular corporate culture and mass capitalism. No, Louisville is “weird” and musicians like Jim James, Patrick Hallahan, Ben Sollee, Scott Carney, The Watson Twins, and Cabin all in some way, shape or form, whether sung or spoken, reiterated that ideology throughout the night at ear X-travaganza.

Opening the night was Wax Fang‘s Scott Carney who gave a rowdy and raucous solo performance seated playing mainly a Gibson 335, I think. He never really introduced himself to the crowd and pretty much kept the focus on his voice through his music. He was gritty, greasy, and sounded damn near perfect for the relatively short time he was onstage.

Next up The Watson Twins, who literally are twins and Louisville-natives, gave a folky acoustic based performance that was filled with competing vocal abilities to ambient guitars.  About mid-set they busted out a pretty good cover of Bill Wither’s “Ain’t No Sunshine” to an appreciative crowd. I’ve never heard of them before and won’t soon forget them now.

Ben Sollee was up next and came with much anticipation of who – if anyone – may join him onstage. After a few openers, Sollee took the opportunity to verse the crowd on the controversial mountain-top removal mining process which prompted Jim James to make his first appearance to the stage taking up bass guitar responsibilities for the next song. And although I don’t recognize most of Sollee’s songs, it’s not hard to recognize that this boy can really rock a cello like no other and performs with a lot of passion while onstage.

Cabin, a band known for a changing line-up, brought the fullest sound of the night, being the only time more than two people were onstage during the performance. Unfortunately I was busy during their set and can’t tell you much how they did, although I’m sure they were status quo for the evening.

And finally, Jim James and Patrick Hallahan of My Morning Jacket closed out the night. James, opening up with “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” to a dark stage, quickly built the song into a rock n’ roll rendition of the christmas classic. He then transitioned into “Gideon” along with letting out a few other My Morning Jacket favorites like “One Big Holiday” and “Smokin From Shootin.” James made good use of having essentially the entire stage to himself and staggered around the entire set while showing his mastery of his arsenal of guitars. He was in rare form. Had the show not been all ages, I’m sure James and Hallahan would have played for a lot longer. James & Hallahan may be onto something with this two-piece percussion and chords assault they dropped on the lucky few this night. They absolutely killed it in sort of a Black Keys/White Stripes-ish kinda way.

John Timmons, owner of ear X-tacy, also took the stage for a bit and thanked everyone in the crowd for their support and reiterated what the musicians had been doing in between songs about supporting the local business community before we automatically buy from large corporations.  “Amazon.com doesn’t need your business, but ear X-tacy does” he declared at one point.

Timmons also spent a few minutes with me to chat about Ear x-travaganza and what the future holds. When I asked him about the possibility of having another Ear X-travanganza benefit concert like this, he stated “Well I don’t want to start a charity or benefit event or anything like that, but my staff planned this on their own. So I couldn’t say ‘No’ once they had it all done all the work and the musicians had already agreed to play.” Timmons continued by saying “This event is really speaking to me in a big way. It makes me feel like people still give a shit about what we do. Like the store can survive.”

This review is also posted at Louisville.com

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