Reverend Horton Heat in concert at WOW Hall
On Tuesday, Feb. 25th the Community Center for the Performing Arts proudly welcomes Reverend Horton Heat to the WOW Hall.
Loaded guns, space heaters, and big skies. Welcome to the lethal littered landscape of Jim Heath’s imagination. True to his high evangelical calling, Jim is a Revelator, both revealing & reinterpreting the country-blues-rock roots of American music. He’s a time-traveling space-cowboy on a endless interstellar musical tour, and we are all the richer & “psychobillier” for getting to tag along.
Seeing REVEREND HORTON HEAT live is a transformative experience. Flames come off the guitars. Heat singes your skin. There’s nothing like the primal tribal rock & roll transfiguration of a Reverend Horton Heat show. Jim becomes a slicked-back 1950′s rock & roll shaman channeling Screamin’ Jay Hawkins through Buddy Holly, while Jimbo incinerates the Stand-Up Bass. And then there are the “Heatettes”. Those foxy rockabilly chicks dressed in poodle-skirts and cowboy boots slamming the night away. It’s like being magically transported into a Teen Exploitation picture from the 1950′s that’s currently taking place in the future.
Listening to the REVEREND HORTON HEAT is tantamount to injecting pure musical nitrous into the hot-rod engine of your heart. The Reverend’s commandants are simple.
And no band on this, or any other, planet rocks harder, drives faster, or lives truer than the Reverend Horton Heat. These “itinerant preachers” actually practice what they preach. They live their lives by the Gospel of Rock & Roll.
From the High-Octane Spaghetti-Western Wall of Sound in “Big Sky” — to the dark driving frenetic paranoia of “400 Bucks” – to the brain-melting Western Psychedelic Garage purity of “Psychobilly Freakout” — The Rev’s music is the perfect soundtrack to the Drive-In Movie of your life.
Jim Heath & Jimbo Wallace have chewed up more road than the Google Maps drivers. For twenty-five Psychobilly years, they have blazed an indelible, unforgettable, and meteoric trail across the globe with their unique blend of musical virtuosity, legendary showmanship, and mythic imagery.
“Okay it’s time for me to put this loaded gun down, jump in my Five-Oh Ford, and nurture my pig on the outskirts of Houston. I’ll be bringing my love whip. See y’all later.” - Carty Talkington Writer/Director
Rev your engines and catch the sermon on the road as it’s preached by everybody’s favorite Reverend. Don’t forget to keep an eye out for the 11th studio album from REVEREND HORTON HEAT, boldly titled Rev, due out January 21st.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H96XcNWKZVg[/embed]
***SUPPORTING ACT***
BLACK JOE LEWIS
Anatomy texts might not show it, but the greatest soul and blues music leaves no doubt that the hip bone is directly connected to the heart -- a fact that's driven home in every note laid down by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears. As they prove on their Lost Highway debut, Tell 'Em What Your Name Is, the Austin-based combo has the kind of gritty attitude and deliciously greasy groove-consciousness that'd pass muster in the toughest juke joint.
To paraphrase Ike and Tina Turner, Tell 'Em What Your Name Is gives Lewis the chance to play nice and easy as well as nice and rough. He and his bandmates take the latter route more often -- as on the fiery, brass-laced opener "Gunpowder" and the unabashedly horndog anthem "Big Booty Woman." But there's far more than one trick up their collective sleeve, as borne out by the dark New Orleans march "Master Sold My Baby."
"It's weird..people say I come up with all these different kinds of songs, and I guess that's true, but they all just come out naturally," says Lewis, who cites James Brown and Lightnin' Hopkins as two of his bigger influences. "If I sit down and try to write a song, it just sounds contrived. All the songs on this record, I just made up as I went along. I couldn't do a lot of 'em again if I didn't have 'em on tape."
That from-the-gut stream-of-consciousness permeates the disc, with Lewis wailing wildly -- in a voice that's one part Joe Tex, one part Tyrone Davis -- through sweat-soaked offerings like the gutbucket "I'm Broke" and "Please, Part Two" as his bandmates turn up the heat, taking a low simmer to a full boil with turn-on-a-dime precision.
"The thing about the band is that we play with each other, not against each other," says Honeybears' guitarist Zach Ernst. "It's not a contest, the way it is in some bands. We communicate with each other without speaking, and I think that has a lot to do with Joe's attitude -- he has an amazing ability to just draw people in. For a lot of people, the blues is a museum piece, but Joe brings it into the moment."
If not for a twist of fate, Lewis might never have gotten up on stage at all. Growing up in the small town of Round Rock, Texas, he was more likely to be found on the football field than in the band room -- but landing a job in an Austin pawn shop put him at a (shall we say) crossroads in life.
"My dad and my uncles listened to soul and blues when I was a kid, but I never really took much notice," says Lewis. "When I was about 19 or 20, I was working in this pawn shop and all these guys would bring in guitars. One day, I started playing around with one and took it home and started teaching myself how to play."
Buoyed by the encouragement of friends, Lewis soon gravitated to the fertile open mic scene of his adopted hometown, where he performed as a solo artist, a period he now laughingly recalls as "horrible..I was usually too drunk or too scared to put on a good show, but people kept asking me to come back."
While he eventually put together a band with a solid lineup, Lewis couldn't capture the mojo he was looking for and was seriously considering retiring from music in his mid-twenties -- until Ernst entered the picture.
"I was on the [University of Texas] programming board and we'd booked Little Richard to do a show and I immediately thought of Joe," says the guitarist. "I heard he was down on music and was working at a restaurant shucking oysters, so I approached him as a fan -- and Joe ended up playing the show with his old band."
The plea worked, the gig was explosive, but also a partnership was born. Shortly after that gig, Zach formed a band around Joe and the rough and ready Honeybears' were born. Four weeks later, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears played their first gig. Their stylings quickly drew attention from local tastemakers -- like the Austin Chronicle, which marveled at the singer's ability to "spit lyrics in short bursts of aggression like bricks at glass windows" -- and fellow musicians like Okkervil River and Spoon, both of which tapped him and the Honeybears to hit the road as an opening act.
"Joe's a really special, really natural performer," says Spoon drummer Jim Eno, who thought enough of the band to lend his production skills to the new disc. "We were able to do about 75-percent of the album live, and that's something you very, very rarely do."
The spontaneity was immediately evident on the Honeybears' self-titled EP -- which spotlighted the band's controversial, tongue-in-cheek concert staple "Bitch, I Love You" -- and is even more at the fore of Tell 'Em What Your Name Is. To hear Lewis tell it, however, they've only scratched the surface of what they're capable of.
"The way I look at it, I have to step my game up every day," he says. "I look at it as a challenge. It's great that we've gotten noticed, but we’ve got to keep those people interested and bring more people in. If you don't keep moving forward, nobody's gonna care -- and I'm gonna make sure people really care about this band."
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ-M_8pY6TI[/embed]
***OPENING ACT***
PIñATA PROTEST
Punk rock like abuela used to make!
Piñata Protest is a “Tex-Mex punk” band from San Antonio, TX. Their self described sound and attitude arises from the two counter-clashing worlds that the band embraces: punk and Tex-Mex.
Piñata Protest’s unique and catchy sound takes the traditional folk rhythms of Tex-Mex music (conjunto and norteño music that is native to the South-Texas and Nortern-Mexican region they originate from) along with the three-row button accordion and combine that with the fast tempos and attitude of punk rock, ska, and many other genres. Along with the use of traditional instruments and rhythms the band also sings in their regional mix of Spanish and English (or Spanglishas it’s called locally). Their songs lyrics cover a range of topics, from political topics close to the ethno-identities of the band, drinking, love, religion, and racism. Adding to their sonic performances is a lively and energetic live show that ignites crowds to mosh, skank, and twirl their dance partners.
Piñata Protest was founded by the Mexican-born singer, song writer, and accordionist Álvaro Del Norte. The band includes Regino Lopez on electric guitar and vocals, Richie Brown on electric bass and vocals, and Chris-Ruptive on drums. Other instruments such as the trumpet and güido are used in not only their studio recordings but their live performances as well.
For over ten years the quartet has maintained a busy schedule of performing and touring throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, and France alongside range of musical acts such as The Reverend Horton Heat, Mariachi El Bronx, Molotov, GBH, Tagada Jones, Guttermouth, Voodoo Glow Skills, Brujeria, The Toadies, Ramon Ayala, The Blasters, Authority Zero, Agent Orange, Ozomatli, Mustard Plug, The Blasters, and Wayne Hancock.
Festivals are a strong point for Piñata Protest. Their very eclectic sound, interactive show, and energetic performances makes them a perfect fit for a wide variety of festivals. Most notably the band has had several official appearances at Punk Rock Bowling, SXSW, The Tejano Fan Fair, Flogging Molly’s Salty Dog Cruise, Palomino Fest, Punk In Drublic, The Latin BMI Awards, Accordion Noir, Muddy Roots Festival, and a slew punk, folk, and Mexican themed festivals.
The bands unique sound has also leaded them to be featured in soundtracks for the following major and independently release films: Tequila Re-Pasado (2023), Me Estas Matando Susana (2016), La Soldera (2015), Circus of the Dead (2014). The band has also written music specially for Me Estas Matando Susana.
The band has also had several collaborations with companies including releasing their own beer through Freetail Brewing with a released of Piñata Protest beer which was distributed in grocery chains, bars, and venues across Texas. The band has also collaborated with other worldwide brands such as Tecate beer, Ford Motor Company, and Nike Athletics.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VghHqLVew98[/embed]
