From The Pit...
WHOOOOO! It was a back crackin’, head snappin’, Satan worshippen’, cowboy hat wearin’ rock and roll hoochie koopalooza recently at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach with The Supersuckers, Tenderloin, and Jesse Dayton’s band.
The day started early at Lou’s Records in Encinitas with a free laid back show from the Supersuckers. They pulled up with their tour bus with the Les Paul guitar exploding out of Texas painting on the side and started to unload their stuff. They set up under a canopy and played in the parking lot to a crowd of about 100-150 people. They started out with a cool, rockin’ Willie Nelson drinking song.
The Suckers then took some requests, the first being "400 Bucks", a Reverend Horton Heat song which the band had covered on a split single with the Rev a couple of years ago. They then played a rockin’ little set that included some old stuff and some new stuff. Stand outs included "Born With a Tail", "Creepy Jackaloupe Eye", "Gold Top", "Allright", and "G.I.K." an early track. This was a cool chance to see the Suckers up close, and they hung out for a while afterwards a met some fans and schmoozers. This was merely a teaser of what was to come later that night at the Belly Up.
The Jessie Dayton band opened the show. These guys were pretty much a country band with a little bit of rockabilly bluesiness thrown in for good measure. As a whole they’re a good band. Dayton is a pretty ass kickin’ guitar player, and the guy on slide guitar rocked like I’ve never heard slide guitar rock before. (I’m not a big fan of country slide guitar). Overall these guys were a little too country sounding for my tastes, but there were some really rockin’ points to their set, mainly in the more blues infected numbers. Their closing song kicked some serious ass, let me tell you.
Next up was Tenderloin, a blues rock punk power chord chunk a chunk locomotive of a band. These guys shook the very rafters of the Belly Up with their crunchy riffs. Their God of a drummer was none other than Taz, the former drummer for the Reverend Horton Heat. This seven foot tall lookin’ long hair havin’ monster pounds the skins like you wouldn’t believe. His double bass pedal assault pounds into your chest until your internal organs feel like they’re churning around like water, moving independently of each other in your body.
The highlight of Tenderloin is their lead singer. He is something to be seen. This is a big boy, and he makes no qualms about it. When you see him, voluptuous is the word that comes to mind and I don’t mean sexy. The guy is a rockin’ singer, guitarist and harmonica player. He really gets into his show. When he rips his shirt off, he dances around, using his flab as an instrument, catapulting things out into the audience, swinging it around, beaching himself on railings and such.
The Supersuckers took the stage to the strains of AC/DC’s "For Those About to Rock..." and quickly tore into "Gold Top", a song about Les Paul guitars. They didn’t play tons from their latest album "Sacrilicious Sounds of the Supersuckers" but did play the best tracks including "Bad Bad Bad", and "Born With A Tail" (You know/I’m in league with Satan/You know/There’s no debatin’ my Hellbound trail...).
They played a fine sampling from all their ass kickin’ albums, highlights including "Creepy Jackaloupe Eye", "On the Couch", "She’s My Bitch", and so on from "La Mano Cordurna". They didn’t leave out "Smoke of Hell", playing "Coattail Rider", "Caliente", "Hell City Hell" and "I say Fuck", with Taz on vocals for this one (I say Fuck and you say Yeah/I say yeah and you say Fuck). An interesting choice was the Suckers’ cover of "Dead Homiez", an Ice Cube song.
The band played a few requests, sticking to their $5 a request rule. If there was something they didn’t want to play, they gave the 5 spot back. They made about $20 off requests though.
The Suckers were pretty liberal in bringing members from the other bands up on stage to join in on songs. Several times members of the other acts were up on stage, adding to or filling in for other Supersuckers.
The crowd was pretty wild. The Belly Up used to always be pretty mellow, no matter who played, but now mosh pits are commonplace. The management has even bought a stage barrier, which mainly provides something for people to trip on and hit their heads. The wooden floor is also a problem for moshers because it gets like ice when it gets wet. Further, the Belly Up tries to discourage moshing and the security really are not very adept at handling a pit. They probably do much better with the Saturday afternoon swing dancers. One problem came up when a 12" stiletto was found on the floor. This put the security guards into a frenzy. Overall, this show had the most ejections that I have seen at a Belly Up show. Kick those punk rockers out!
Overall, this was a very cool show. The Supersuckers are a great Satan worshipin’ cowboy hat wearin’ Les Paul playin’ bunch of psychos!
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