Tuesday, April 14, 2009

THIS RECORD SHOULD BE PLAYED LOUD


Last night, I went to Spaceland specifically to see The Broken West and catch another raucous Henry Clay People Show.

The Broken West is pretty straight forward American rock, and they do it really well. The twenty-dollar minimum at Spaceland put me three beers in by the time they were done, which is just fine. The harmonies did some nice soaring, and the bassist did the thing where he rapid fire thumped over staccato drum beats, so hey, that's always good.

The Henry Clay People though - they have something really special. The guitarist was up on the amps, kicking the symbols. Who does that anymore? I accidentally bumped into the lead singer, Joey, who fresh off the stage looks somewhere in between a young member of an AC/DC cover band and your suitemate from college, and we talked about the Rolling Stones.

It really makes sense. What's great about Henry Clay People: they just play. No questions, no advanced metaphors about the way buildings look like people. It really is as straight forward as Country Honk (Honky Tonk Women) and it has that dirty boot-bar quality that is so appealing of blues rock. In the liner notes, on the back of Let it Bleed, it says "THIS RECORD SHOULD BE PLAYED LOUD." I love that.

It's the kind of music that is bursting out of the bar when the door swings open to let you in. Anyway, my opinion is: Play The Henry Clay People really loud.

You Can Be Timeless - Henry Clay People

Country Honk - The Rolling Stones

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