As you get older it gets harder to find people who still want to go
out and party. Lately I find it more and more difficult to drag my
friends to a bar to hear a band that only I have heard of. The cure for
this problem turns out to be Southern Culture on the Skids.
Although SCOTS have been around for more than 15 years I have never
seen them. I arranged to interview them since they have a new CD, "Liquored
Up and Lacquered Down." "Liquored Up," is full of drinking songs, cheap
motels, and lonely nights. The band is lead by Rick Miller on vocals and
guitar and Mary Huff on bass and vocals. Although she only sings two songs
on the new CD the best is Mary's, "Just How Lonely."
Read my interview with Rick elsewhere in this issue of Whatever. I
asked him questions after the band did their sound check. I was amazed
during sound check at how good they sounded while still acting loose and
screwing around. Rick told jokes to the five people that were listening
while Mary fixed her microphone. Mary threw a ball for the bands dog
Peanut while Rick got his guitar right. Everything flowed nice and there
was no tension at all from anybody. It was probably the best two beers
I've had all year.
By the time people actually started showing up I had been at the Met
for about four hours. I figured that since it was a school night that the
place would be half full at best, but early on it was obvious that it was
going to be a cooker. When the Forty Fives took the stage there were maybe
50 people in the place, by the time they left there were 150.
The Forty Fives set was pretty good. They are a four piece from
Atlanta that play straight rock and roll. They did a Sam Cook number and
warmed the place up nice. The band has a big dude on the old Hammond organ
who rocks out the whole time.
SCOTS took the stage and from the first note people were singing and
getting up on stage to strut their stuff. Rick plays a tight but rocking
guitar with plenty of twang and volume.
I think their fourth song was called "Daddy was a Preacher, but Momma
was a Good Old Girl," or something like that. Mary sang it and all the
ladies who'd been waiting to get up on stage and dance got to do just that.
For the next number, the title track to "Liquored Up and Lacquered
Down" the bands manager put on a big sombrero and parka to play the Mexican
trumpet solos. Even though the album is barely out people try to sing
along and dance.
I partied it up taking photos until I ran out of film. After that I
drifted around people watching and talking to friends I found. Even though
I left before the band finished it was still the most fun I've had in a
while.
