Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers
King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow
12/07/2010

“I’ve come a long way to get punched in the face,” says scrawny psychobilly frontman JD Wilkes. Apparently he encountered some Glaswegian ‘hospitality’ before the show. 

Now though, it’s a subcultural miasma of rockabilly trucker types and a smattering of goth girls who’re getting a slap in the chops. All have turned out to hear his band’s mix of swampy blues and gritty rock, beefed up by the presence of Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Dennison. Th’ Shakers possess the ferocity of Gogol Bordello and an attitude that makes Jon Spencer look restrained.

Their latest album, ‘Agridustrial’, takes their redneck punk into heavier territory; galloping beats competing with stand-up bass, banjo, and Wilkes’ frantically distorted harmonica playing.

Robust dancing breaks out in the audience, a testosterone infused cross between swing jive and fighting; unless you go home with bruises and a torn shirt it’s not been a good night. “You’re jumpin’ around like you got itchy balls!” exclaims JD in admiration. It’s easy to see why a Shakers tune ended up on the Southern Gothic vampire serial True Blood’s soundtrack. Replicating the sultry atmosphere of the Bon Temps bar room on a damp night in Glasgow is no easy feat, but short of people throwing bottles at a chicken wire barrier protecting the stage, they’ve achieved it.

The music is raucous and simplistic, the lyrics inaudible, the song titles known only to the faithful, but the joint is jumping. Consider your shack (or in this case Wah Wah Hut) well and truly shaken.

Lucy Brouwer