T’s Take: Yeah so this one kinda comes as a surprise to me. I guess in the end the joke is on me as The Reverend ended up with $50 of my hard earned dollars ($25 ticket plus $25 T-Shirt). And let me just say that The FSS isn’t in the business of writing negative reviews at every turn. Personally I feel there’s too much good music out there to be putting people on to, rather than waste time telling them about what sucks. But goddamnit anyways, let me back up.
We went to see The Reverend in Teaneck fucking New Jersey. If you’re familiar at all with New Jersey you probably STILL have no fucking clue where in the fuck Teaneck is. The club (Mexicali Live) was fine as clubs go. The beer selection was fine as well, and although we didn’t eat there the food looked fine too. I chatted up the kindly bartender a bit when we got there and apparently the club had been there for over ten years or so (who knew) and a packed house is about 375 concertgoers. Know how many tickets The Reverend sold? 160. So at the end of the day that’s 158 happy concertgoers not including the FSS. And 215 unsold tickets.
Here’s the thing. It sucks that he’s not on Sub Pop anymore. It sucks that he’s doesn’t have videos on Mtv anymore. It sucks that he hasn’t put out an album as good as his first few in around 10-15 years. It sucks that he’s not playing Irving Plaza or Roseland. And it sucks that he can’t even sell out a small club in fucking Teaneck. But wouldn’t you think then that you’d appreciate the few people that did bother to come out? The few people that bought your last album even though it was a major letdown (myself included)? Look, The Reverend wasn’t a dick to his whole audience. He didn’t pull a GG Allin and assault everybody with fecal matter either. Really he just fucked with my shit. But that’s all it takes.
Went down like this. Opening act, Miss Derringer was rockabilly at its most adorable. Miss Derringer herself could fit in your pocket and was cute enough that you’d want her in there. We dug her music and thought it was great that she went for it hard when the band covered Die Die My Darling to end their set. As opening acts go they were a great one. I got up front against the stage for The Reverend to take some pics for the site and get one video for our readers. I’m no asshole. I know that it’s disrespectful to record an entire set. Not only that it’s distracting to others and I wasn’t gonna do that. Instead I snuck a peek at the setlist and planned to record Psychobilly Freakout and then put my camera away for the rest of the night. I also am not one of these people that holds the camera up as to obstruct other people’s views either. I hold it in front of my chest and look down at the LCD screen to make sure everyone’s in frame. I’m not going to sell it or make money off it or anything. The videos we take for the FSS are purely to send the point home of why you should see a particular band the next time they come round. And The Reverend of all people could use some more bodies at his shows so you’d think he’d be cool with it. Not so. One minute into the song he makes his way over to me, gives me a dirty look and rips the camera out of my hand. Nice guy.
A couple poseur grease heads behind me cheered. Oh their hero!!! A man who will truly take no shit. A man who took a stand. Against what? A fan taking single video of one song out of a set of twenty-five to help promote the band? And I bet you dollars to vintage Stray Cats shirts that the douchegreases who cheered all would have loved to see a video of a concert THEY WERE AT on the internet the next day. One guy next to me kinda patted me on the shoulder and said that The Reverend was just fucking with me and that there were a bunch of people around us taking video and he just chose me to joke around with. But I saw the look he gave me when he did it and it wasn’t a joke. In fact I watched it a couple times this morning to confirm it. The Reverend is a straight dick. He’s done getting my money and support, and it’s a shame really cause otherwise he put on a hell of a show. But you won’t read about that here because I’m not gonna waste my breath any more on this cat. I snapped a couple pictures of him that I’m not posting here either (the punk rock TMZ the FSS is not). Instead I picked a shot of bassist Jimbo Wallace, who was nice enough to go around shaking the audiences hands (including mine) before he left the stage after the last song. A stand up guy with a stand up bass. The Reverend however… well… I guess it’s true what they say. Everything’s bigger in Texas. Even the assholes.
P’s Take: I really didn’t wanna go to the Reverend show. I was tired and sick and what I had heard lately from Heat hadn’t really interested me. But I had agreed to it and Uncle T couldn’t find anybody to pick up my ticket so go I went. The club itself is pretty cool, despite being in Teaneck. The waitresses were lovely to look upon as well, again, despite being in Teaneck. Miss Derringer took the stage and I was feeling altogether much better about making the trip that night.
You know what they are like? They are like a Rockabilly Blondie. The singer is about 4’11″ and gorgeous, does this little 2-step and they played a kind of pop-rockabilly type stuff. They were definitely pretty good. They closed with Die Die My Darling. As T mentioned, the singer did go for it, however I have seen alot more menace coming from my 6 year old. ALOT more.
So then we waited for the Rev. And waited. A fuckin long time. When they came out I had already half lost interest and was watching the hijinks’s of the gaggle of suburban greasers that showed up. They were precious. But then the Reverend started and holy fuck. It was some evil, evil shit. I realized then that this was gonna be something, one way or the other.
First off the band are a group of characters. Heat himself looks like a Steinbeck character. He is a type of ugly people just aren’t any more, least not around here. The bassist looks like a chubby Irish boxer from the 30′s, like maybe he fought under the name Cannonball Costello. The drummer looks like a Professor of Folklore I had in Iceland. Yah. Anyway, the set ranged from fucking intensely good(the old stuff) to fucking stupid (the new stuff). The Suburban Greasers loved every minute of it, though. Which brings me to my next tangential point. I like some old stuff, however everything old-timey is not necessarily cool. For instance, here is a brief list of old shit that just don’t cut it: faith in the electoral system, choral singing, and western-swing polka bullshit. And there is a segment of the population who will get down to all of the above long as it is dressed up snazzily enough. Tell me I’m wrong.
So, to return to the review, Heat was, at times, fucking great. Really fucking great. But other times it was just, well, not. And you can’t grab the FSS’ gear. You just can’t. I don’t care how old-timey ugly you be.
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Yeah, he’s at total asshole and his music has sucked for years. I saw him last Fall open for Motorhead at Roseland. I hadn’t seen him in years and though, wow, what an amazing double bill this is going to be. But within minutes of him starting his set, I was bored to tears. And his whole image and type of humor(as well as those fanatical fans that look and act just the same) already got way too corny years ago. Sure, he’s still a great guitar player and can still do an already job of playing the old shit. But I’m so over that dude, I just can’t be bothered.
Some of his newer tracks were as interesting as telling the audience the difference between cactus that grow in texas vs. the rest of the south. Enthralling. Yeah, great guitar player for sure…but the being a dick part overshadows it. Through giving that guy any money or attention.
He probably just thought you were a Soc’.
I was wearing my cardigan/letter jacket and championship football ring. Should’ve known better. Stay Gold Throatfuck.