American country rockers bring the summer vibes to Bristol in a big way.
20-July-2016: There is a serene atmosphere inside the Fleece tonight. It’s all rather surreal: there are tables and chairs set out at the back of the room and the punters mill around chewing the cud. You wouldn’t have thought there was a gig about to take place had it not been for the impressive variety of band t-shirts on display, ranging from Judas Priest, Ginger Wildheart, and the Melvins to Butcher Babies, Turbonegro, and Napalm Death. That said, it’s far from sold out, the curse of performing in the middle of the week strikes again.
The Supersuckers take the stage and give the Fleece all the atmosphere of a rodeo in the heart of Arizona, they move through their set with all the ease of a paddle steamer cruising down the Mississippi.
At first, everything is laid back and easy on the ear, the Lynyrd Skynyrd vibes of “Roadworn and Weary,” “Must’ve Been High,” and “Empty” invoking images of rolling down Route 66 in an open top Cadillac as the sun sets, underpinned by a great bluesy bassline.
Then, just when the energy in the room begins to drop, “I Want the Drugs,” “Jibber Jabber” and a cover of Billy Joe Shaver’s “I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train” inject healthy doses of punk and rockabilly into proceedings and show exactly why Motorhead took them out on tour in years gone by.
Frontman Eddie Spaghetti is a master of the mic talk, leading the crowd in a merry hoedown of laughs, jibes, and his own father and ending every song with a resounding shout of ‘Cha, cha, cha!’ that cues rapturous applause.
Announcing no encore as ‘we can’t be bothered to keep walking up and down those stairs…it’s not you, it’s us’, Supersuckers close with “Pretty Fucked Up” and “Born With a Tail” to huge applause, leaving a silly grin on the face of every single audience member as they head off into the cool Bristol night.