Reverend Horton Heat, Supersuckers & Zeke Rock Seattle’s El Corazon, By Holly Homan

El Corazon is a tiny club tucked under the Denny Way viaduct on Eastlake at the northern part of downtown Seattle. Their habit of booking awesome bands has sent me there many times over many years.

Last night, December 30, 2011, I went there to see psychobilly artist Reverend Horton Heat. But before The Reverend came on stage, there were two supporting acts to get through.

The first band was Seattle’s own Zeke, a hard core punk band. Zeke performed a tight set and played loud, fast and furious and were very well received by the packed-like-sardines crowd.

However, I just don’t go for this new hard core where the vocalist doesn’t do anything but scream. If there’s no discernible melody or you can’t understand the message the singer is trying to convey, I really don’t see the point of it.

Next up came Seattle legends The Supersuckers. I first saw The Supersuckers at Bumbershoot in 2001. I saw them again at Tacoma’s Hell’s Kitchen. I think it was opening for the Phenomenauts, then I saw them at El Corazon also as a supporting act but I don’t remember when that was or whom they opened for. At that show they kept complaining how displeased they were that they were still playing the small clubs (even referring to the club as El Crapazon). This performance, however, they were in top form. The Supersuckers are a no-frills, straight-forward rock and roll band and they do what they do very, very well.

But before I get into that, I want to mention that as I ventured onto the dance floor, I realized it had been newly carpeted. That’s right, dance floor — carpeted. Now I’ve been to many clubs over many years and never have I encountered a carpeted dance floor. At first I thought it would be more comfy for standing on over the course of two or three hours, but that turned out not to be the case. I still had to go home and apply an ice pack to my knee. So, why, El Corazon, did you carpet the dance floor?

Okay, back to the Supersuckers. Vocalist/Bass guitar player, Eddie Spaghetti belts out the songs sounding like he has gravel coating his throat. He taunts and teases the audience and has them in the palm of his hand right from the get-go. The audience sang along and pumped their fists in the air and even though this was a 21 and up crowd, I found myself being slammed into, and hit hard, with swift regularity.

Drummer Scotzilla (aka Scott Churilla) banged the skins with fury while simultaneously spinning his drumsticks without ever missing a beat. With a guitarist who looks like a cross between Steve Tyler and Johnny Ramone, this band looks like typical rockers.

They closed their set with their most famous song, Born With a Tail, drawing it out to allow Scotzilla to perform a raucous drum solo, which brought enthusiastic cheers from the audience.

At the very end of their set, Eddie requests that everyone hold up their middle finger, then takes out his phone so he can get a picture of everyone with their middle fingers sticking in the air.

The Supersuckers are sort of like a favorite pair of jeans. They are a good fit for playing with just about any type of band and they’re always a pleasure to have around. They succeeded very well in not only warming the crowd up for the Reverend, but they succeeded in showing everyone what a good rock show should look like. I have no doubt that everyone watching them was just as impressed as I was.

At long last, at the stroke of midnight, The Reverend Horton Heat struts on stage with a bassist and drummer. Everyone took their places, plugged in and all hell broke loose! The Reverend opened with Psychobilly Freakout and immediately, I got slammed into with such frenzy I could barely stay on my feet. The slamming didn’t let up either, save for the few slow songs that were performed.

What sets this three-piece from Dallas apart from other psychobilly bands is not only the absence of the macabre, but also the strong country flavor, complete with the Reverend’s twangy guitar, that dominates their sound.

Notable highlights included playing Galaxy 500 and giving the audience a rare treat by playing the Christmas song, Run, Run Rudolph. A couple times stand-up bassist, Jimbo Wallace, laid his bass on its side, got down low and played. Not to be upstaged, the Reverend stood on top of the bass and continued playing without missing a lick.

Supersucker, Scott Churilla, took over on drums for about four songs before current Reverend drummer, Paul Simmons, returned to his perch. Scott was actually the drummer for the Reverend for several years before becoming a Supersucker and he did (pun intended) a bang-up job!

The action-packed forty-five minute set ended abruptly, leaving the crowd screaming for more. Everyone’s wish was fulfilled when the band returned for another half hour that included a psychobilly version of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues.

Then it was all over and all I could do was limp back to my car and head home happy. I have no doubt everyone also went home happy. If this show wasn’t sold out, I would be very surprised. The club was packed and this was the second show in two nights. Obviously, Seattle loves The Reverend.

– Holly Homan

All photos by Holly Homan. All Rights Reserved.