Concert Review: Reverend Horton Heat

by Todd Maternowski

For reasons that defy explanation, the legendary psychobilly band Reverend Horton Heat has never gotten a fair shake in their hometown. While annually playing to sold-out concerts from Europe to Japan, when the Reverend plays in DFW it seems he and his legion of fans are told to cram it in a venue the size of a coffee shop-- on top of that, the local music press has raked the Rev over the coals for the better part of 15 years, using the lame excuses that the later albums are not as "essential" or --my personal favorite music critic term-- "seminal" as the first two, when in fact it's likely they never cared for the music in the first place.

Yet the Rev continues to return to Dallas from his overseas adventures and continues to play some of the most amazing shows anyone will ever experience. That's why it was so refreshing to see the band booked in a decently-sized venue Saturday night at the Gypsy Tea Room, along with up and coming local bands Frankie 45 and The Von Ehrics. Album after album (including, of all things, a Christmas album released last year) and show after show the Reverend makes his fanatical fans all the more rabid for a little bit more of that cowpunkapsychobilly genius.

The performance itself was nothing short of amazing, a hyperactive rollercoaster of a show that left the crowd gasping for air. With little introduction (and what seemed to be a bit of a raspy throat), frontman/guitarist Jim Heath blew away the crowd's eager anticipation with an overcaffeinated half-dozen favorites, including "Big Sky" and "Baddest of the Bad", before letting up and allowing the audience to breathe. For one song after another, Jim Heath and his crew --Jimbo, the charismatic stand-up bass player and new drummer Paul Simmons-- played like the modern-day virtuosos they are, combining blues, country, rock, punk and attitude with blazing speed and amazing harmony to create a ludicrously original sound. And that's just the music: inseperable from their mastery of their instruments is their on-stage charm --while Heath is effortlessly drawing a whirlwind of sound from his legendary Gretch guitar, he is also engaging the crowd as the Man of a Thousand Faces, using his repertoire of expressions to goad the crowd. Probably no where else in all of music will you see a crowd whipped into a frenzy by an obviously fake smile, as you will regularly at a Reverend Horton Heat show.

And that doesn't begin to describe the power of the band's stage show. Midway through the two-plus hour-long set, the Reverend played some of the Christmas songs off their album We Three Kings (which followed a hilarious Christmas rant on toy ponies from Walmart), lending a screaming-fast rockabilly touch to some timeless holiday classics. He followed this with an announcement that the band had now recorded over a hundred songs, and an invitation to the crowd to come up with the remainder of the setlist for the night. This resulted in an unprecedented amount of crowd participation, three 'slow' songs in a row and a great 'slow song' rant by the Reverend himself, who let the crowd in to a little secret of 'The Industry' regarding heavy metal hairmetal ballads (complete with a spot-on impersonation of Sebastian Bach).

Like the old vaudeville performers of yesteryear, the Reverend hits the audience from all angles, dexterously blending incredible music with high-level charisma. And even after over twenty years and literally thousands of shows, the band ends every performance as if they could continue on for another few hours. In an age where so-called musicians try to distance themselves from their music and their fans, it's extremely refreshing to see this talented bunch go all-out for their fanatical fans.