Narc. Magazine Online
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Lee Fisher enjoys a unifying night of socialist passion, drunken despair and cowboy laments
Image: Waco Brothers by Lee Fisher
Flyin’ Brian knows how rock’n’roll works, and can twist it into the shapes he needs to suit whichever one of his dozens of bands he’s writing for. The Country Irregulars aren’t especially country, I guess, but they have a bar band, power pop, ramshackle quality that’s kinda Outlaw Country-adjacent. And they may be his most musically accomplished outfit of all. There’s a Replacements feel to some of this, and even some pub rock. One song even sounds like Mink DeVille. The guitars sound great, the harmonies are on point and as usual Brian’s lyrics are sharp and funny (big up Hey! Ho! Brilleaux).
Another artist who understands rock’n’roll at a fundamental level, and who also has an absurd amount of musical ventures, is Jon Langford. I can’t lie, he’s something of a hero of mine (he’d hate that) – for his music and his art and his politics and his goofy grin. Tonight he’s in town with the Waco Brothers, his longest serving band that isn’t Mekons, and it’s their first time in Newcastle this century!
Somehow I’d never seen them before and while I was expecting something entertaining, this was on another level. They’re the shitkicking-est, blue collar-est, last gang in town-est outfit around and gave us ninety minutes of rocking country (although not really country rock) full of socialist passion, drunken despair, cowboy laments and some choice covers. When the three guitarists, mandolin player and the violinist line up across the front of the cramped Cluny stage, it’s inspiring somehow. There’s at least three great singers in the band, and in Langford one of the best frontmen you could hope for – charming and funny and generous and daft – and it’s hard to take your eyes off violinist Jean Cook, who seems to be constantly doing things for her own amusement (throwing weird poses, pulling faces at Langford, generally goofing around).
We got a Merle Travis song (9lb Hammer), we got an Undertones song (Teenage Kicks), we got a George Jones song and a song about George Jones, we got a blistering version of Neil Young’s Revolution Blues, a Cook and Langford duet. We got the Waco classics – Plenty Tough Union Man, Harm’s Way, If You Don’t Change Your Mind (one of their loveliest and most country songs) – and plenty from the recent The Men That God Forgot album. It’s old favourite Walking On Hell’s Roof Looking At The Flowers that feels like a manifesto – “History is written by the winners; this is a loser’s song” – and as the Waco Brothers passed round a bottle of tequila, did a shambolic Shadows dance and bemoaned the state of Trump’s America, I realised that I wanted the Wacos to be the last band playing in the last dive bar in the world as the jackbooted government stooges start kicking in the doors. Tonight was genuinely thrilling, heartwarming and unifying.
