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show reviews
1. Immortal Lee County Killers, All Night, The Loners
Supersuckers Country Western Extravaganza, with Jessie Dayton

5/9/03 ZZ Top, Ted Nugent @ Alltel Pavillion, Raleigh NC Fuck Alltel. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s one of those cookie cutter amphitheatres that all look exactly alike. I hadn’t been to a big concert in a few years, and I never had the good fortune of seeing ZZ live, so I looked online and the lawn tickets were only $20, lied alltelpavilion.com. I was in there not 5 minutes and I’m out $29 for a $20 ticket and $8 for a cup of Icehouse. What shit. I’m never going to Alltel again. Unless AC/DC plays. The Nuge’s stage was done up in desert camo with sandbags around the drum riser and a big American flag with the Motor City Madman’s John Hancock stitched across the stripes. I’d seen the Nuge 4 times, and he was doing his standard set with the rile-up-the-good-ole-boys “Jesse Jackson is a piece of shit” patriotic banter which is a great joke that I like to go along with. This time he also said “For all you hippies out there – war IS the answer!” Half the crowd responded “YEE HOO!” and the other half looked at their girlfriends and laughed. I was in the other half. I love the Nuge. We all do. People that don’t like the Nuge don’t know how to have fun. I don’t care what your politics are. He brings out the fire in us all. Sweaty Teddy closed with an excellent rendition of the Star Spangled Banner with the whole band playing on it. That gave me a case of the Yeahs. Not long, ZZ came out with some stylin’ matching Texas-glam get ups. The stage set was bare bones with the amps hidden on the sides. Even in one of those big outdoor venues Gibbons’ guitars were just humbuckin along with that sweet tone. At first I was diggin’ on Dusty and Billy and the whole boogie-woogie wizard vibe. But it got slow. REAL slow. Frank Beard (the beardless drummer) wasn’t putting out. Then it went from slow to boring as HELL. Beard needed some blow or something. If you’ve ever worked on an assembly line, Frank Beard is that old guy who’s been working there for 30 years and he doesn’t give a fuck about anything, and he’s just there because he’s too tired to think of anything else to do with his life and too old to change even if he wanted to. While ZZ did play all their good 70s shit along with the 80s hits, I wanted more Fandango-like energy. Then again, when they recorded Fandango they weren’t 90…

5/10/03 T Model Ford, Robert Belfore, Dynamite Bros @ Local 506, Chapel Hill NC I only had a bit of cash left over from what the cocksuckers at Alltel didn’t steal, but I didn’t care because there were 2 good shows tonight and I was determined to see them both. Dynamite Brothers opened with a blues-heavy set covering a few Muddy tunes. They did some of their usual songs that I can’t get sick of because Scott always gives 110% on the drums and Mitch rips it up on the guitar. The Dynamite Brothers aren’t white boys influenced by white boys influenced by black music, their influence comes straight from the original blues and jazz and funk and soul masters. These guys are real musicians, not just cut and paste genre hacks like most of us. The audience held back but more and more people started coming in which was encouraging because T Model was recording a live album and the members of the local alternative press didn’t seem to give a shit. They were too busy covering aging James Taylor wannabe folk dorks and faggoty plays. Robert Belfore was mind bending. He’s just one man finger-picking a guitar but he sounds like a symphony of soul. People began to dance. In Chapel Hill. After Belfore graced us with an encore, T Model Ford from Greenville, Miss. climbed the stage with the help of a cane and tore it up. Just T Model and Spam, the drummer. T Model is the essence of rock n roll, the spirit of fun. The man is 78 years old, 78 hard years, but he sits up there and smiles and spills his soul and puts every one in the groove. People were dancing and drinking all damn night. In Chapel Hill, where people mostly prefer standing in the back of the room and doing drugs in their bedrooms. But not tonight, and you can thank T Model Ford for that miracle.

5/10/03 The Spinns, The Red Skulls @ The Cave, Chapel Hill, NCThe Red Skulls put on a great show. They were doing a garage-punk type of thing and the guitar player’s vintage Supro made it sound good tonewise. What made this band Yeah-ish was their put-outtance. They jumped around and all that shit that bands are supposed to do. They got a great response. See it’s OKAY to say WOO when you like the band! I was proud of the unusually enthusiastic Cave audience. Then the Spinns came out and had a great fucking night. I’ll never get sick of good garage rock. They was ON tonight meaning the Yeah factor was at 11. Holy shit what a great night. In Chapel Hill. Somebody kill me while I’m happy.