Any of you guys ever hear Hank Williams III

Any of you guys ever hear Hank Williams III - Printable Version

+- InsaneTrain Forums (https://insanetrain.com)
+-- Forum: General (https://insanetrain.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: General Forum (https://insanetrain.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=8)
+--- Thread: Any of you guys ever hear Hank Williams III (/showthread.php?tid=36116)

Any of you guys ever hear Hank Williams III - Flumper Barflusterbutt - 04-26-2006

E's comment about First Avenue had me googling to see some names of people that have played there. I don't expect many of you to read this, but:

Quote:Is Hank Williams, III a moment in time? Does he represent something?

I decided that was the question I wanted to answer for myself Saturday night down at First Avenue. I can remember seeing his father a few times as a dumb kid in Kansas City at the Starlight and Sandstone Amphitheatres. Hank Jr. was a pretty solid entertainer; someone who could play just about every instrument, and ended every show I saw exhausted, drunk and shirtless. Was he a real outlaw? Maybe, maybe not. The point was, he took the time to learn where he came from, and, when given the opportunity to perform in his own way, he created a blistering act that showcased the fact that he wasn't just going through the motions and collecting paychecks.

At the end of the 80's though, I think he went to the overtly literal autobiographical well too often; there were too many references to how hard it was to be Hank Williams' son. The albums he did for Elektra in the late 70's and early 80's were probably his best work, and the stuff he did after that really rehashed that material over and over again.

So where does his son, Shelton, fit? At the end of the day, there are those who say his punk band, AssJack, means more to him than the Country Music he does. And he's admitted in some articles that they've driven some dump trucks full of money up to his house to convince him how popular this stuff is and to get him to trot it back out there. So it would be very easy to be suspicious, jaded and distrustful of "the act."

But here's something different: Hank III records this stuff for Curb Records. At the show there were several people walking around with Tshirts that said "Fuck Curb Records" on the front, and, "We're Putting the Dick back in Dixie and the Cunt Back in Country," on the back, official Hank III merchandise. Manufactured rebellion, to be sure, but doesn't it get an "A" for effort? Tim McGraw records for Curb Records, do any of his tshirts say something like that? Are they playing yet another audience for suckers? Have the squares infiltrated us?

The crowd at a Hank III show is always interesting. First, Demko's there, he hates everything, and has a very low tolerance for anything that even smells fake. He walks in with his bullshit gun set to "kill," and keeps it trained on the stage until after the final encore, waiting for any hint of something metaphorically similar to Styx doing "Mr. Roboto" with a straight face and expecting people not to riot in disgust. But in addition to the critical intelligensia lying in the corners for this young man like starving spiders, there's a real hodge podge of mullets in signed cowboy hats, green haired punks whose faces couldn't get through metal detectors, and suburban mothers in homemade knitted sweaters. It's been a good five years since everyone first heard him belt out, "I might get drunk and rob a bank..." Wouldn't the word have gotten around had he been so phoney that he couldn't pass the muster? (And it would have been word of mouth, too, because the crap Country Radio stations still aren't playing him, but we'll lay off of that tangent for a minute.)

Call me gullible, but there's just something different about several thousand 17 year old girls in braces screaming in tears to some pumped up Ken Doll howling, "you had at me at hello..." and several hundred people of all walks of life losing their minds when a guy who looks like a tattooed Luke the Drifter, whose eyes are about to explode out of his head, unintelligibly growling something along the lines of "fuck the fuckin' fuckers," in the middle of a song while playing instruments you can actually see plugged into the amps. Is he drafting along on his grandfather's legacy? Probably. Is he adding to it though? Possibly! THAT is the meat of the moment. He's being himself, you're sure of it, as you walk out of the club. He isn't hiding his bald head under a thousand dollar cowboy hat, and you could probably bump into this clown in any bar in your town and he'd be just another smelly punk who doesn't shower...that just happens to be Hank Williams' grandson. And his dark, dilated eyes are like mirrors on the shorted-out, fucked up people who file into these clubs to recapture a little bit of that authenticity and desperation that has been drained out of what once was a music of hope and fear.

There probably aren't many meth addicts who haven't bathed in a month standing next to grandmothers from Wayzata at a Kenny ChesMcBrooksTwain concert, sharing a smoke and a light, and THAT is the difference my friends. There is possibility for cultural breakthrough in this young man if he chooses the path. Sure he has a genetic leg up, and a lot of hired bullshit behind what he does. But he cuts through that with a shiv in a jailhouse bathroom, and at the end of a show, he stumbles backstage and looks Shelton Williams in the mirror before ambling off into the black-hearted night.

Any of you guys ever hear Hank Williams III - cLaY - 04-26-2006

he hates everything, and has a very low tolerance for anything that even smells fake.

my kind of guy

Any of you guys ever hear Hank Williams III - Vitamin E - 04-26-2006

Kenny ChesMcBrooksTwain troll coming in 5...4...3

Any of you guys ever hear Hank Williams III - minorthreat - 04-26-2006

I actually saw him open for the Melvins in Des Moines. He also was the bass player in Superjoint Ritual. He's pretty good. Don't remember a whole lot though.

Any of you guys ever hear Hank Williams III - cLaY - 04-26-2006

i like Hank the First, never really liked No. 2 though

Any of you guys ever hear Hank Williams III - minorthreat - 04-26-2006

cLaY Wrote:i like Hank the First, never really liked No. 2 though

I think I've read somewhere that he doesn't get along with Hank II. He looks almost identical to Hank Williams I. He hung out with the Pantera guys all the time.

Any of you guys ever hear Hank Williams III - Flumper Barflusterbutt - 04-26-2006

cLaY Wrote:i like Hank the First, never really liked No. 2 though

Oh shit man, you had to grow up when he was in his prime. That shit was great. His shows were fucking fantastic. Most country shows are boring, but his are wild.

Did you know that he nearly died from a fall on a mountain? Download "Ajax Mountain" from Habits Old and New.

Any of you guys ever hear Hank Williams III - SizeMatters - 04-26-2006

yeah Im not gonna read it all but I'll say this. he does his own thing and he is also in a band called Assjack. they are kind of heavy metalish. I have some CDs

you can also find him on myspace and listen to his music. it looks like dude has a pretty sweet time at shows.

Any of you guys ever hear Hank Williams III - Flumper Barflusterbutt - 04-26-2006

[Image: lovesickbluzboy005.jpg]

Any of you guys ever hear Hank Williams III - cLaY - 04-26-2006

damn, he does look like Sr.