You can always count on Reverend Horton Heat to rock the shit out of a show. The trio hit the ground running hard and fast, pulling out their classic Psychobilly Freakout as one of the first songs in the set. Consummate showman, lead singer and guitarist Jim Heath (AKA “the Rev”) and upright bassist “Nature Boy” Jimbo Wallace played back-to-back smiling affably, Leave it to Beaver-style, before splitting with a snarl. The whole show juxtaposed ‘50s niceness with a seamy underbelly.
The Rev and Wallace have been playing together since the band’s inception in ‘85 and they’ve got their patter and interaction down pat (they ribbed each other mercilessly). That’s not to suggest it felt tired – to the contrary, the band’s just super-fucking tight.
The next hour and a half traversed the Reverend Horton Heat’s extensive back catalogue, taking in everything from straight-down-the-line rockabilly, through to cow punk and garage. All the while the Rev supervised proceedings, either smiling benignly and throwing us a wink, or grimacing. As always, it was fun, funny, loud, theatrical, weird and wild.
Highlights included the Rev playing some fierce licks standing aloft on Wallace’s upright bass, while Wallace slapped on undeterred; the Rev crooning slickly through In Your Wildest Dreams (the sort of tune that belongs at a messed-up prom in a John Water’s movie) and uniting us in the “cha, cha, cha” refrain at the end; the Rev’s bird calls in the Cramps-esque Zombie Dumb; and the tongue-in-cheekcrowd pleaser Galaxy 500 (“[y]ou take the fish/ I’ll take the bowl/You take the dishes, while you’re at it take my soul/ But things ain’t so bad, cause I got a Galaxy 500”).
Special mention goes to Scotty Churilla for a thumping drum solo that made every item of Beat’s clothing vibrate.
WORDS BY MEG CRAWFORD
IMAGE BY LEE EASTON
Loved: The number of blokes who resembled garden gnomes. Also, the young punk couple at the gig with boy-punk’s mum – very sweet.
Hated: The dudes in chinos and boat shoes, making arses of themselves in the moshpit and shoving women.
Drank: A pot o’ water.
