Supersuckers Country Western Extravaganza, with Jessie Dayton
Live at Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NC
Monday May 20, 2002
You haven’t lived until you see the Supersuckers. This was the third time I got the privilege. I first saw them at Laga in Pittsburgh on the big Supersuckers/Hellacopters/New Bomb Turks/Zen Guerilla tour. That show is probably in my top 5 of all time shows ever. One of the highlights of that show was the bags of weed being thrown up onstage during “I Want the Drugs.” Such respect given to a band that someone would throw $10 worth of Pittsburgh shwag at em. I saw them again at a packed 31st Street Pub. The show wasn’t booked until about a week beforehand as the Suckers wanted to fill in a last minute open date on their tour. Luckily I lived in flyer country and saw one in the window of the tattoo shop down the street from my pad. That kicked some more ass, and I got to rap with Rontrose afterwards (rap=talk. It doesn’t mean we did “You B Illin” by Run DMC)
And this time here in Cackalacky was the Supersuckers Country/Western Extravaganza, where they performed “Must’ve Been High/Live” style. They are supporting Must’ve Been Live, the first record released on their own Mid-Fi records, as in middle finger (the logo is quite clever). Eddie on Mid Fi. “Having our own label gives us the freedom to make more of our music available to [our fans] without the hassles of ‘the middle-man’ worrying about things like ‘marketing’ or ‘demographics’. Hell, these are just hard words. All we want to do is get some kick-ass music out to the people and with Mid-Fi we plan to do just that.”
Along with the four Supersuckers, two from opener Jesse Dayton’s band shared the stage, one on bass (Eddie Spaghetti played a nice-lookin acoustic guitar) and a man on the slide guitar to give the sound a nice, warm country twang.
Jesse Dayton used to be in the Road Kings. I saw them with Mike Ness at the Graffiti in Pittsburgh. He’s a good guitar player – he plays the Tele in the speedy country/western pickin’ style, of which Junior Brown is master. Jesse Dayton’s current group is a good honky-tonk band from Texas. There’s a lot of good REAL country music coming up. Hank III, who I saw at a little bar called the Bluegrass Inn in Nashville, is another one bringing GOOD country at ya. It’s unlike most of the plastic ass pop-country shit that stupid Music Row bosses fart out every year, that you see on the Country Music Awards and in a lot of clubs in Nashville. It’s picking up where guys like Hank Sr., Johnny Cash, George Jones, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings (you know, the bad-asses) left off. Music with balls.
The Jesse Dayton show was entertaining as hell. They played a honky-tonk version of The Cars “Just What I Needed” and invited Mr. Spaghetti to come out and sing. And after that I just had to fall off that wagon and get a beer. And it did make everything better. Don’t believe anybody that tells you you can have fun without drinkin. They are usually the ones who are complaining it’s too hot and they want to leave.
At the end of Dayton’s set they did a medley of Johnny Cash tunes, in between each tune asking the audience for shots of Jim Beam over some fiddling around an E chord. They kept on asking, but no one would buy them a shot. Why? The Cat’s Cradle doesn’t have liquor! The liquor laws down here are stupid in different ways than the ones in PA are stupid. Here you can buy beer in any store, but you can only have liquor in certain bars. Yinz say yall. Who the fuck came up with this stupid ass shit? Let’s get ‘im. But someone bought the band a round of Buds, which was kind-like.
And on come the Supersuckers to lead us into a good time, laughing, sing-a-long good fuckin time. Eddie Spaghetti is a true showman. He’s the kind of have-a-good-time-all-the-time guy that makes you want to be there, and if you ain’t having a good time, you feel like a sinner. And you are. He just had a kid not too long ago, and there’s some gray showing up on his Elvis chops, but there’s no denying that he’s still the MC. “How about a nice round of applause for Jesse Dayton? And how ‘bout them Supersuckers?” Dan “Thunder” Bolton is reminding me more and more of Rick Nielson of Cheap Trick, with his beard, beer gut and sarcasm. Rontrose remains the skinny black jeaned t-shirted rocker dude while Dancing Eagle is a caveman back ‘ere with the clubs.
The show was a damn roller coaster called “The Atomic Yeah!”. The Supersuckers are such a well-oiled live machine. They can take you down with them for a somber moment then right back up into kick ass rock n roll time, even with the acoustic guitar and the tiny little amps in tow. It started off with some old favorites like “Double Wide” and “Dead in the Water” and then you had your “Roadworn and Weary” and a song called “Talented Boy” that was a somber number about a long gone friend that marked the first time I saw Eddie Spaghetti without a smile on his face. But the Supersuckers won’t leave you there in that somber mood and then jump right into an upbeat one – they BRING you back with “Peace in the Valley” and after that yer just “Yeah!” and it takes ya. They played the song “Non-Addictive Marijuana” which saw joints being passed around and to the band and toked upon and back to the audience. That was a cool, friendly moment that made you feel like these were just some guys playing in your living room at a house party. The joint-smoking kept on whilst the band ripped out the big hits “Jackalope Eye” and “Born With a Tail”. Then they did a “fake encore” where Eddie says, “Thank you good night, we’re the Supersuckers!” and he turns around, then everyone cheers and he turns back around and thanks you for “inviting us back out.” Saves time.
What a show. The merch table was crammed with people while I stood outside the door handing out flyers for our 506 show on Sunday. The little band room in the Cradle was a cloud of weed smoke as cases of Bud were brought back to be enjoyed.
The old folks’ had the Stones in their heyday, and we got the Supersuckers. Only you don’t have to watch the Suckers from a mile away in the nosebleed seats, and you don’t have to blow a security guy to hang out and smoke a joint with ‘em after the show. Shit. People complain about the record industry not putting great bands up on MTV, but as long as I get to see the ‘Suckers in bars and nightclubs, I ain’t complaining.
5/22/02
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