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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2007 > December > 10 > Entry
Review: A weekend with the Hacienda Brothers and the Knitters
Last weekend offered one inspired pairing — the Knitters and the Hacienda Brothers at the Continental Club Saturday night — and one thorny dilemma — whether to leave before the end of the Hacienda Brothers’ Sunday afternoon show at Gruene Hall in order to catch at least the last half of the Knitters’ second night at the Continental.
The list of bands I’d care to see two days in a row is pretty short, but both the Knitters and Hacienda Brothers are on it. The Knitters, a country mutation of the punk band X featuring Dave Alvin on electric guitar, has a sly comic bent, as you might expect from a group whose “hit” (No. 2 in Czechoslovakia, claimed singer-acoustic guitarist John Doe Saturday, before pretending to argue with singer Exene Cervenka about the year of this achievement) was a tribute to road kill called “Poor Little Critter on the Road.”
But the Knitters frequently sounded downright ferocious, even while cutting up. Their wacky “The New Call of the Wreckin’ Ball” was delivered with as much abandon as songs from X’s back catalog, including “In This House That I Call Home,” “Skin Deep Town,” “Burning House of Love,” “The New World” and “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts.” Though re-imagined with a distinct twang, there was no mistaking them for honky-tonk tunes with Doe and Cervenka’s lashing vocal harmonies, Alvin’s serrated solos and the runaway-locomotive rhythm section of Jonny Ray Bartel on stand-up bass and D.J. Bonebrake on snare and a washtub kick drum.
There were less raucous moments, including Doe and Alvin’s melancholy duo take on Merle Haggard’s “Silver Wings,” a jolly “Something to Brag About” and a version of Alvin’s “Dry River,” a song Doe rightly proclaimed ought to be recorded by Haggard. But even a tuning break took a sharp left turn, when Cervenka started to improvise to Doe’s guitar as he checked the intonation and the rest of the band launched into spiky free jazz.
The Knitters jammed the accelerator pedal on the folk standard “Rock Island Line,” which didn’t stop until it was going so fast derailment seemed imminent, or at the very least a small conflagration.
The Hacienda Brothers were less combustible, but no less exciting. They also fit just as untidily into the country category. Guitarist-accordionist Chris Gaffney is one of the best soul singers on the planet, while singer Dave Gonzalez’ lead guitar style is steeped in the 3 a.m. blues (although the duct tape holding his wrist bandage together — he had a motorcycle accident last summer — was definitely more punk). Bassist Hank Maninger and drummer Dale Daniel have a subtle jazzy flair, and pedal steel guitarist David Berzansky is equally adept at providing apt fills and atmosphere, or launching into sparkling, swinging solos.
The Haciendas’ Saturday set leaned toward the soul side, with their own gorgeous “What’s Wrong With Right?” and “Walkin’ on My Dreams,” as well as a stirring version of the Percy Sledge hit “It Tears Me Up.” Gonzalez and Maninger sang pristine harmonies on the Intruders’ “Cowboys to Girls,” seguing beautifully into “Just My Imagination” and back.
Alvin stood behind the stage grinning, sometimes shutting his eyes while Gaffney sang, until Gaffney brought him back onstage to help sing his own “Fourth of July.” Alvin initially shoved his hands deep into his pockets, not knowing what to do with them absent a guitar, but then began doing a modified twist, to cheers from the crowd, still sizeable with closing time closing in.
The Hacienda Brothers sounded even better some 14 hours later at historic Gruene Hall.
“It’s all that old wood,” explained Daniel during a break.
The long afternoon slot also permitted the band to stretch out more on solos, indulge requests and mix up a wide variety of material, including their own brooding honky-tonker “Mental Revenge,” Johnny Cash’s “Home of the Blues,” Dave Dudley’s truck-driving anthem “Six Days on the Road,” and an accordion-fueled and turbo-charged version of the Box Tops’ “Cry Like a Baby.” A rendition of Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby” demonstrated an accordion can be just as bluesy as a guitar. The original country/surf-rock instrumental “Railed” got the crowd on its feet.
Leaving after only a few hours was tough, but the Knitters, as it happened, were even more galvanic than on Saturday. The lovely ballad “Someone Like You” afforded a brief respite in a succession of hard-rocking numbers that concluded with a demented version of “Born to Be Wild.”
There were some repeat tunes from Saturday, but all were even more fierce, and one reached a pinnacle of punk intensity. Doe invited singer Cindy Wasserman from his solo band to sing harmony on the Knitters’ version of the traditional “Walkin’ Cane,” which suddenly escalated into a stomping blues ending. Just before the crucial point, Alvin motioned for her to move out of the way. She looked a bit taken aback, but he shot her a quick look of apology before unleashing a solo that had him thrashing around like a downed electrical wire. Even when he’s moonlighting as a country picker, Alvin’s guitar could use a “Danger: High Voltage” sign.
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By Jonny Ray Bartel
December 12, 2007 5:04 PM | Link to this
Please Print. Thank You !
By Drummer Dale
December 18, 2007 1:17 AM | Link to this
Thanks for coming to both shows, Parry. I’m glad you enjoyed them as much as we did. I hope to see you in March when the Hacienda Brothers return to Texas.