Junior, you should have showed up...
> T HE WACO BROTHERS
>
> Jazz Bon Temps, Saturday, March 20
>
> Who'd have thought that six men in black from Chicago, sporting such musical
>pedigrees as
> Jesus Jones and the Mekons, could bust out such shit-kickin' rock and keep a country
>tinge
> to it? It's a fine line, especially when you think back to the days when "country
>rock" meant
> overly long, watered-down songs about horses and sunsets. No eight-track trips to
>the Hotel
> California here, though; just six guys who rock as hard as bands did back in Ye Olde
>Punke
> Rocke Days of Yore, the bastard child of The Clash and Hank Williams left on the
>doorstep
> with a note that reads "Fuck you" pinned to its cowboy-shirt swaddlin' clothes.
>Their version
> of the spooky classic "The Wreck on the Highway," in particular, is not to be missed,
> informed as it is with jungle drums and Jon Langford's Joe Strummer-ish yowl. Younger
> players could take a lesson from Langford on how to come across onstage; indeed, the
> whole band was as animated as if they were standing in puddles and getting 110-volt
>jolts
> from their instruments. At a time when alt.country bands increasingly lean toward
>tepid
> vocals, languid playing, and gentle singer-songwriterish sentiments, a band like the
>Waco
> boys is a welcome blast of whiskey-tinged fresh air. They may not have cut it on the
>Grand
> Ol' Opry back in the Sixties, but they take country elements and give 'em the
>jumper-cable
> treatment that should have come along years before. No jaded hipsters standing 20
>feet back
> from the stage with their arms folded smoking cigarettes; no tight-Wrangler country
>poseurs
> either that night -- just excited, sweaty rock fans crowding the front of the stage
>like the Wacos were Elvis and it was '57 again.
> Not an easy feat in 1999. -- Jerry Renshaw
>
