Last night The Reverend Horton Heat came to Milwaukee in
support of his new album, Rev. Playing
to a packed house, they came out strong with the obvious opener, Victory Lap
and Smell of Gasoline from the new album.
No one plays hard edged insane rockabilly like this today, and they like
to show it off. There were plenty of
extended instrumentals, including drum and bass solos. The last time I saw the Rev play was in the
mid 90’s and this show was no different.
Sure they have slowed down a little; they have been doing this for about
25 years. Right after Gasoline was the
classic Psychobily Freakout from 1992’s “Smoke Em If You Got Em (subpop). It took me right back to seeing them at the
Club de Wash in Madison. Later in the
set was The Jimbo Song, from Space Heater, which Mr. Heath called “his worst
album ever”. Midway through the set slowed down (understandably so)
but shot right back with Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode, my personal favorite 400
Bucks, and Big Red Rocket of Love. The
encore featured crowd favorites Cocaine and Galaxy 500. Almost two hours later it was over, I was
exhausted, sweaty and stinky. It doesn’t
look like the Rev is stopping anytime soon.