X

 THE HOOTENANNY 2002

July 6, 2002 @ Irvine, CA 
Pictures By: Snack Baggs
Pictures By: Scott Wulfesteig    

It’s summertime and that means it’s time for the slew of huge festivals to come through the So Cal playing to sold out venue’s of bored suburban kids and the like. This year the festival to go to, by far, is the retro fest feeling, Hootenanny. With a sprinkling of styles, that blended  punks, rockabilly, psychobilly, and country music fans together for a day of as advertised “Fast music, Fast cars, And fast women.”  And in this writer’s opinion, they did another great job putting it all together.

            On the doll hut side stage the standout performances were the trailer park kings Throw Rag, and an exuberant performance by the trio called The Atomic Men. The atomic Men were kinda like a young reverend rough but with the certain something that makes you stay and watch, a natural performer.  But in the defense of the later playing bands, I was watching the main stages from about 2 o’clock on. Russell Scott and his Red Hots started the after noon off on the main stage with a somewhat mellow performance. While wandering around to see what this year’s Hootenanny was offering in the way of foods, fads, and fashion, I missed a great set by Exene and her side band The Original Sinners. And while checking out the Munster Mobile and the General Lee, cool cars of George Barris and the tons of really cool retro stuff I also missed a set by James Intveld before I got back to the main stage area to see what was brewing.

Click on cars for a closer look

The first really exciting band playing the main stage area was the bay area psychobilly kings Tiger Army. Tiger Army playing during the 12:00 o’clock afternoon hour is somewhat different that seeing them in the midnight hour. With singer Nick 13 donning a cool pair of shades to perform for the somewhat charged up crowd, during which Tiger Army played a great set of hits like power of moonlight, Devil Girl, And to the delight of the crowd Fuck the World.  All in all another great showing by Tiger Army.

            Now Tiger Army is not an easy band to have to follow up, but Nashville Pussy has the sensual high-octane power to do the job easily. With a gravely voiced singer book cased by two sexy ladies that musically kick ass over most of the male counterparts. Nashville pussy combine great stage presence with equally talented musicians to make for a great show.  In fact guitar player Ruyter Suys is one of the hottest guitar players out in the Indy scene right now in more than ways than one. She’s has the energy of Angus Young from AC/DC but she can actually play way more than three chords.  They’re music is sort of like moonshine; it goes down hard and has a hard kick sorta like a southern mule at the end. To gauge what they’re lyrical content is all about, the songs that still ring in my ears we’re You Give Drugs a Bad Name and Keep on Fuckin how can you go wrong.  And to top of the show guitarist, Ruyter stripped down to nothing but her undies and did quite a number on her axe ripping at her strings till she broke them all leaving her guitar in a shamble of distortion and feedback, screeching furiously till the sound cut out and the frenzy was over. Wheeeew!!

            The next band to grace the stage was supposed to be the Blasters, but they were a no show for the rest of the shows.  The rumor is that Hank Williams Jr., another no show ,and the blasters got side tracked with another tour and had to pull out of the today’s show!   That’s a big bummer; I really wanted to see Hank Williams Jr. I guess I’ll have to wait till next time, but that just meant that The Infamous Cadillac Tramps where next inline to play the main stage. Being the baddest of the bad boys, the tramps have become the “young punks” of the Hootenanny show. Always playing the hardest fastest music of all the bands playing and doing it with style and unpredictable nature that makes em come back again and again. Gabby was his usual psychotic self, pacing the afternoon for a wild 30-minute ride with the Cadillac Tramps.

From here on out all the bands playing were bonafide living legends.  L.A legends X were taking the stage as the as the afternoon breeze finally started to make the California summer manageable, and the crowd was straining to get a closer look. A couple of decades ago in L.A. the members of X formed and they’ve been together ever since, singing music that musical lines. So the hootenanny was a perfect place to showcase they’re punky, folksy, bluesy tunes to an eager crowd.  See our recent deadonthweb.com review of X’s recent induction into the Hollywood Rock Walk.   

            Next on the main stage was England’s own Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros, Front man Joe Strummer legendary guitarist and vocalist for the late 70’ polit-punk band The Clash. Now strummer’s into a world music type gig, playing music influenced by his worldly views. He played new hits like Johnny Appleseed of his new solo album and older songs like I Fought the Law and London Burning of older Clash albums all in all, a great blend of reggae, folk old school punk, and culminating into a terrific performance.

            After the around the world performance of Joe Strummer, the all out, balls out one way drag race that is Reverend Horton Heat was well received. The One and only three piece straight out of Texas was revved up and ready to play as the shadows started getting long and the temperatures started dropping. The reverend torn into a set full of classics rocked the house, songs like Party in You Head , 400 Bucks, Crazy Gringo off their new release.  Along with party favorites like Marijuana and Bales of Cocaine and the usual homage Jimbo in Jimbo song. By the time the reverend was done, the crowd was an exhausted mess.

- Snack Baggs

BACK TO DEAD ON THE WEB