Hellcat Records Tour, May, 16 2007, Magic Stick Detroit

All-ages Means Early Show...

I have nothing against all-ages shows, per se, except for on thing: they start and end too early. While I understand that if you’re going to allow the youngsters to attend a punk rock show, especially on a school night, you should get them home at a decent hour. But because of this, by the time we got to the venue the second act, Westbound Train, was wrapping up their set.

It was enough to get me hooked, though. They had the crowd going, dancing along to a sound that seemed like (for the few minutes I was able to hear it) a mix of punk, ska, reggae and soul. They are really typical of the sound I’ve come to know and love Hellcat Records for ever since the first Give ‘Em The Boot compilation, and definitely worth further exploration.

Next up was Hellcat’s glamtastic rock band, The Heart Attacks, who play skuzzy trashy glam rock, sporting big hair and mullets that barely cover up their punk rock attitude.

I am a huge fan of this trashy version of glam punk (hence my love for Towers of London), and it’s always awesome to see it live. The Heart Attacks didn’t disappoint, full of energy and in-your-face attitude, with frontman Chase Noles looking like a young Axl Rose and sounding like a Young Stiv Bators, and the band doling out trashy Sex Pistols flavored riffs. They are band full of attitude with the sound to back it up.

They even saw fit to insult the crowd at the close of their set. They saw fit to wrap up their set with a cover of an old Slaughter and The Dogs song, making fun of the kids down on front for not being familiar with the infamous boot boys. It was an amazing set, full of old-sounding music and new-sounding energy.

Despite their snotty demeanor onstage, they were really cool guys offstage. Chase stopped and chatted with us sitting at the bar in the back (ah yes, I declined to mention the one drawback of the night thus far: the sound was poorly mixed, and while the action was all happening down in front, the best place to hear clearly was wayyyy in the back). He’s a really cool, really friendly guy, the type whose genuinely happy to see a packed house for a show, and willing to go all-out to entertain the crowd. Thumbs up all around for The Heart Attacks.

I’ll continue to leave my thumbs up for the Nekromantix, who also came out to impress. For almost a decade, they have carried the reputation of being one of the best, if not the best, psychobilly bands in the world. It’s well-deserved.

Their set began with the lights out, and they hammered through surf instrumental, heavy on the bass, as is their trademark. When the lights came up, there they were in all their rockabilly glory sporting their tall hair. Dead in front (pun intended) was Kim Nekroman, pounding furiously on his trademark coffin-shaped bass. The crowd went a little nuts. Ok, a lot nuts.

The Nekromantix delivered a frenzied set of high-energy psychobilly music, and while the coffin bass got everyone’s attention, the entire band was on. There was an entire rockabilly contingent down in front to bear witness, and as the band’s energy grew throughout the set, so did the energy of the crowd. It spread and got the whole club dancing.

Unfortunately, due to the sound of the club, you needed to be in two places at once to get the full experience of the show. You needed to be down in front, feeling the pure thump of the bass and mingling sweat with the dancing mass. But you also needed to be in the back, where you could catch the full intricacies of their sound. Down in front you could feel that this was a band playing its heart and soul out, up in back you could hear it. We spent half of the set in each.

Hellcat Records continues to boast a grand stable of musicians on their roster, and Hellcat Fest was an unbelievable lineup. From rocksteady, to glam, to rockabilly, their package for the tour was varied and impressive, and all of the bands we caught were there to blow the crowd away. While they suffered from poor sound for the evening, it never hampered their energy, and despite the hot, sweaty mass that packed the club, they all walked out that night smelling sweet.