[New Orleans, LA] My favorite of the day – polished rocking bluegrass. Guitar, drum, upright bass, and fiddle. They had a distinctly Austin sound to me – maybe The Gourds with more swamp boogie – and then some songs that were straightforward rockabilly. EyesPoetic was reminded of a KUT “Texas Music Matters” show that focused on music at the border of Texas and Louisiana blending sounds from both states – a perfect description of this band.

[Denmark] I was looking forward to seeing this band. I may get tired of rockabilly, but I have a much higher tolerance for psychobilly. Thanks to Rockboy’s tutelage, I knew this band’s recorded material and always enjoyed it. In fact, I thought I’d seen them but it was actually their cohorts I saw – Horror Pops, whom I don’t like as much, at least recorded. Unfortunately, the venue’s sound went kaput and I found this show completely unlistenable. I did enjoy seeing the suave lead singer of Skarnales show up and spill his beer, not even caring that it was in front of one of Houston’s hot alt Latina girls who was pining for him.

Really classic 50s. Has history with Sun Records & Motown. Way too Elvis for me. Enjoyed the dark edge of some songs, the down walking melody of others, and the one with a stray cat strut. Ended with a song called Long Blond Hair, and made it out to be a big hit – I didn’t recognize it. Overall, the show had a very geriatric feel to it, with comments like “You’re a wonderful audience, by golly” and silly jokes like “You should have been at my last show… somebody should have been at my last show.” Backed by the same drummer and guitarist as last few bands. In the meantime, we enjoyed the short man who was making his girlfriend take pictures of him next to the back of a massively tall girl.

High quality rockabilly, blended with rock and roll and spaghetti western (kinda). Country twang too. Tremble (sp?) from Austin was on drums. More refined guitar and drums, and well defined loops and ditties. Rockboy thought the vocals were the weak link of the band. We were exhausted by this point – Rockboy dealt by taking a little nap – I dealt by becoming a feminazi in my head. Hating on rockabilly girls who dress up like dolls for men, and alternative cultures that celebrate burlesque while all the time maintaining that they hold more progressive attitudes toward women. Amusing event #1: I walked by a group of greasers leaning against a pool table – a group of pinups walked by, and one of the girls turned to look one of the guys up and down. He was totally flustered, didn’t respond, and she sauntered on while all of his friends elbowed him and laughed. I felt like I’d happened upon a scene from a 50s movie. Amusing event #2: I went to the bar and ordered 2 PBRs – very drunk kind of scary pinup ordered a mixed drink with all sorts of side specifications. The bartender muttered to himself, “Some women are complicated, some women are not.” The pinup and I made eye contact, there was an uncomfortable pause – luckily, she laughed and changed her order to a PBR.

This band looked like your typical low-key rockabilly band except for the guy with a pleasingly sleazy 70s look (he turned out to be visiting from Austin). Nick Gaitan was on the upright bass, because Nick Gaitan is in every band in this town. Rockboy was overcome with joy when they launched into classic rockabilly (Setzer-esque, Reverend Horton Heat-esque), but was in the depths when they strayed into a more straightforward rock n roll sound. It was nearly southern rock. Some blues too. The bass was a beautiful looking instrument. As he does at many shows, Rockboy spent most of the time grumbling because they weren’t playing rockabilly and trying to determine whether the guitar was a Gretsch (per Rockboy, it was a guitar that sounds like a Gretsch but looks like a Gibson Les Paul – it was unclear to me why this was important information). Some bands can pull off a lack of identity, but this band didn’t.

Their sound was about as diverse as their collection of instruments: a lapsteel, upright bass, accordion, and drums. And somehow it worked – it was some crazy mix of tejano, gypsy punk, rockabilly, 60s rock… sometimes they sang in Spanish. Nick Gaitan has a great soulful voice. It was all so lively, he had to tell the accordion player to “cool that accordion down.” There was one couple furiously swing dancing by the stage, the girl with a dagger tattooed on her upper arm smiled at me evil-ly, and the rest of the audience were wall-sized Latinos and gorgeous rockabilly Latinas. This show was about when I started thinking Houston isn’t so bad, and is possibly even rawer than Austin with its still burgeoning music scene, and all of the diverse people actually melding their music and making something new, instead of another rehash of the past.

[Oklahoma City, OK] Queen of Rockabilly who has no problem wearing the crown in her 70s – she’s a husky-voiced sexy spitfire who has found Christ – she would tell us about that and sing a dirty little song from the 50s/60s – she still knows how to carry a crowd, a big crowd – there were rumors Jack White was going to join her on stage but he never did…

[Louisiana - he might not live there now but he is forever Louisiana] Oh Jerry – he was the point of this whole weekend (for some of us) – sure I know his hits, but he was never momentous to me – I appreciate his music though and I appreciate his style, especially after weeks of tutelage in his finer moments – so I\”m all amped up to see this wild-haired, piano-bench-thrusting guy who made 50s kids writhe like they were possessed, and I\”m even prepared for the fact that he has aged since those days, but I wasn\”t quite prepared to see a hunch-backed old man helped out onto the stage to sit on his piano bench, where he sat stiffly for the remainder of the show – a lesson in mortality, my friends: age will seriously tame even the wildest of us – where\”s his 13-year-old cousin now? – anyway, he actually put on a great show – he can still sing and he can still play – the piano honestly sounded a little muddy to me at times, but I\”m not sure I\”ve ever seen piano, boogie piano at least, live and maybe that\”s just the way it sounds – by the late-middle of the show, he was cracking jokes with the audience and telling some rowdy little jokes and it\”s clear he\”s a man who has enjoyed his time in a serious way – despite that, he has been described as worrying more than other sinners over his post-death fate, what with his fundamentalist religious beginnings (and continuings possibly) which is a pretty fascinating way to have endured through life

[Corpus Christi, TX] pretty standard hyped up rockabilly – sure it\”s quality but I\”ve heard it before and there are new things under the sun after 60 years [I think this review is more a result of my disregard than their musical quality b/c they sound a lot more interesting on myspace tonight than they did that night: psychedelic distortion!]

[El Segundo, CA] pretty standard hyped up rockabilly – sure it\”s quality but I\”ve heard it before and there are new things under the sun after 60 years

[California now] surprisingly probably my favorite show – former bassist of The Stray Cats – he conveniently played some of their stuff and then did a sort of homage to Sun Records\” musicians – while same-old same-old rockabilly bands get tiresome tiresome, hearing his very apt renditions of Stray Cats\” songs reminded me how un-same of a band they were – cool darkness, style, distinctive pacing with the bass lines – they were a great band and he translated that to us all by himself (with a backing band) – and then he reminded me, something I only learned upon moving to Texas, of the pivotal-ness of Sun Records\” musicians, a good lesson for any young person

[LA, CA] I came into this show all prejudiced because Rockboy (a HUGE fan) links this band back to the 80s LA cowpunk scene and I hear their songs and get disappointed because to me the only thing punk about them is that they hung out with X and Gun Club – you know how people sometimes get confused when they love too much… anyway, their music was as expected, an slightly edgier rockabilly-tinged bluesy country rock with a slightly nutsy lead singer (less famous Alvin brother) – BUT they were just fantastic: guys who have played for so long and so often that they’re astounding simply because they are the definition of tightness – while Alvin was the supposed main attraction in his long red coat, I stared at the bassist and lead guitarist who strummed hard in perfect synchronicity with legs spread, no show, just business – they also had Nick Curran, a local growl-voiced blues singer recovering from tongue cancer, playing with them – he sang one song, his first since treatment, and it was inspiring and heartbreaking all in one

[Denver, CO] a top show – they were weird in just the right ways – their frontman was a white guy with a gold tooth, a baseball cap and thick-framed glasses – their guitarist and co-vocalist was a gothic man with slicked back hair and dark-rimmed eyes who made me want to laugh because he seemed to see the humor in being a gothic man – I had a bad view but there was an extremely short man playing a double-necked red velvet guitar and supposedly an old old man playing a lap steel – the more unremarkable bass player and drummer round up the group – just looking at them immediately made me think of Nick Cave and gothic country and rockabilly – and so went their sound, a gothic hyped up Americana with gospel influences – dynamic stage presence and a seemingly adoring fan base – the two vocalists together inspired all kinds of visions of debauchery – also got a visit from HBomb and TheSpunkyOne

[Los Angeles, CA] small hot blonde woman in weird strappy red and black corset outfit singing in a strong voice to music that revives rockabilly, country and lounge sounds in a moderately punked up style – although she spent half of her show pouting and cooing, Rockboy did not find her pretentious or disingenuous

formerly in Flat Duo Jets – night and day, fantastic guitar player and great singer, gothic rockabilly?, this raucous acoustic set was accompanied only by his junkie sister on a weird box-drum that she tapped and thumped very well – made me think of Italian operas (dark emotion in his voice), David Lynch (had a song that quoted Blue Velvet), Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus (gothic country), Jonathan Richman (mixed trinkling melodies with odd singing)

a fine boss-girl of a lead singer in her red dress with zig-zagging fringes and scattered arm tattoos – in addition to her solid version of low-toned female rockabilly vocalizing, she handled DJ responsibilities in between sets – the band was completed by an upright bass guitarist, drummer, and lead guitarist – some covers, old country, rockabilly, swing; and then a song where the vocalist left and the musicianship was turned up and it was very exciting psychosurf; and then our personal finale was a song that started like the Flipper song with “HA HA HA HA HO HO HO!” lyrics, was dedicated as “The Laughing Song” to the upright guitarist’s “partner,” and has been determined by the wonderous Google to be a The Residents song of the same name that is described as sounding like The Flipper song – it must be noted that the venue was satisfyingly swanky rock club and the environment on their ‘Swing Night’ was earnest, clean dance devotion with a crowd of youngsters, hipsters, oldsters alike

the lead singer of this band annoys me to the point that I can\”t fairly judge their music, she is so unjustifiably full of herself and blatantly self-aware on the stage, we were semi-positive that we were giving this band a second chance and they got the same rating they got the first time: unsatisfying rockabilly poseurs, perhaps because they\”re from Seattle and don\”t have the Texas roots as a foundation

They’re a motley crue but it comes together beautifully: the drummer who’s so bad-ass (literally) he doesn’t care if his shirt has a hole in the armpit; the proud, dark, classic, and pretty guitarist; the happy mop-head bassist; and the cute emotive showman of a lead vocalist. In addition to coming together as a group of ‘misfits,’ their music manages to tap into a multitude of sounds while still retaining a personality all their own. They often overlay punk vocalizing with rockabilly/psychobilly melodies, but their true appeal lies in the diversity of their songcraft and the quality of the musicianship all the way through. Touch of metal there too.

the motivation for this outing – this band has twice been the “best show ever” that I missed and Rockboy saw – they definitely knew how to work a crowd though I found the mix of psychobilly and exhortations to chant “Hell Yeah!” disconcerting (it’s the name of their album – but still – I attributed their lack of cultural consistency to being from Denmark) – the lead singer, Patricia Day, has the most gorgeous honey-rich speaking voice I have ever heard and wooed the crowd with winning grins and a tight black dress – she also played a fat upright bass and regularly stuck a fat little tongue out of her mouth at the crowd – she paused midway through the show and yelled at a guy in the crowd, “Can you please stop choking him!?” and proceeded to fully berate him, telling him to cool his hormones, it was very exciting and set the audience to cheering – the other highlight of the band is the guitarist (and husband) and sometime bass guitarist/vocalist as well, Nekroman, who also plays with The Nekromantix – it seemed he must have emerged from the womb playing psychobilly music but I found the tattoos of vegetables on his neck distracting – their sound is great: although the instrumentation tended toward straightforward psychobilly, the songs were distinctively more melodic and gothic-lite than typical – a sound similar to Tiger Army’s but I might think that because they share a label – they also did a ska song that was particularly pleasing to me (they have three, says Patricia) – although they put on a good show (though bringing drunk attention-seeking girls on stage was a mistake) their sound was quite off to the point that her voice was muffled and the overall sound was scratchy – Rockboy felt that they were rushing through songs and had lost that raw passion that new bands have

it is unfair to blame my mild disappointment in them on them because I had built them up unreasonably in my head and created a sound for them that didn\”t really exist, I had filled in all of the fuzz from the first time I saw them with really bad sound with this fantastic original sound, so they didn\”t have on their old ranchero clothes and they are not bizarre creening country but pretty straightforward 60s garage rock, they are very rounded and irresistibly danceable, there is some country in there and maybe old-school rockabilly, the voice remains though and is the key to their originality, very good band

also an 80s British rockabilly classic but more psychobilly than The Rockats, lead singer looked incongruently like a surfer in his board shorts and cropped hair and then they said that they live in California now, energetic and polished, clean cut self-composed guy turned out the be their phenomenal guitarist, very entertained by the most enthusiastic mosh pit I\”d seen in a long time, engaging very high-quality band

old-timey take your grandma to the sockhop rockabilly, 80s British band, rockabilly classic, everybody and their mother (literally) in the crowd was dancing, charming, Lonesome Spurs guitarist was a member, the 40-something pasty British upright bassist ought not have taken off his shirt but seemed a dear anyway with his enthusiasm

the lead singer has more personality in his skinny left leg than a whole lineup of bands, he has a wealth of antics to accompany his Tennessee singing and harmonicasizing, had a more rootsy sound than the Koffin Kats, the close-to-death guitarist was not there but was being filled in for by the guitarist from the Jesus Lizard, the upright bassist and drummer are excellent as well

worked very hard to put on a crazy show, psycho psycho-billy, guy on the huge stainless steel upright bass beat himself on the forehead with something mid-show and bled the rest of the show – possibly beat himself with a fake-blood packet – despite his seeming insanity he always concluded songs with a polite “Thank you very much for coming”, loved the multi-level multi-directional multi-colored mohawked guitarist for some reason, also impassioned and would turn profile to crowd and look up and scrunch his face up when it was time for a cappella punk or oi choruses, their stage interplay made them seem like good friends and very enjoyable show on the whole

dirtiest rock n rollers I done ever seen: “dirty south” for the white trash set – especially because of the lead singer’s wailing thumping harmonica which was the best part; from Nashville; also had an upright bass, drummer and guitarist; hyped dirty psychobilly on the whole; lead vocalist was too skinny, hyper and silly to even have a chance against the line-faced tatted guitarist for most depraved rocker: spitting, throwing pubic hair and other shock-tactics ensued

Irish punk mixed with Texas rockabilly, distinctive because had a banjo and a fiddle, the fiddler was the only bandmember with a mohawk and we joked that his unmanly instrument drove him to it, good band

from Apple Valley! or Hesperia!, and really really good, punk with only a little bit of rockabilly, lead singer was very reminiscent of Gwen Stefani and was an excellent showwoman – confident and full of weird faces, fantastic musicians as well, especially the upright bass player, their name comes from a Simpsons episode

rockabilly outfit from Santa Cruz, good but so much the same I think the time has come for me and this genre to part ways, did have one good surf guitar song, singer verged between social critique and ignorant obnoxiousness, spit at small crowd and tossed his drumstick at Rockboy but all in good fun you know , covered Stray Cats which confirmed their tired sameness in my book, highlight of the show was a fight between a girl in a polka-dotted dress and a girl with pink hair that matched her pink frothy dress

my disdain for genre/band is less an accurate perception and more a result of personal events that evening, Chop Tops is a good band

They’re from Phoenix and were in town for South by Southwest. Surf with a Nick Cave voice (at times). Bit rockabilly. Nice measured intensity. Sample lyric: “if you’re young and female you’re likely to get balled” at my shack. A touch misogynistic. They lack finish, especially in the vocals — definitely rooted in punk. Another sample lyric: “kill kill kill for the thrill thrill thrill, thrust thrust thrust for the lust lust lust.”

Old hand at the sound (this was a rockabilly showcase). Didn\”t try to win with loudness like the young guys – knew their stuff was good enough to play at regular volume. Bassist used to play with Reverend Horton Heat.

Very good punk country. Upright bass player who looked the part. Short intense guitar/lead vocalist. Old friends from Tennessee who just moved to Austin. Rockboy compared them to locals, WT Special, though I would say they’re better and harder.

Straight rockabilly. Great look. Extremely glam rockabilly girl bassist. Rockboy describes as hopped up Johnny Cash. Varied from jumpy to slow to hard – I enjoyed the great dark country. All of them were good guitarists. rockboy also describes as Flat Duo Jets and Legendary Shackshakers and Gun Club (he had a bit of a thing for this band). The band livened up as show went on into darlings and even the ice princess smiled.