Heavy Rebel Weekender

HOLY SHIT! The Heavy Rebel Weekender (HRW) was one hell of a party. I have to cuss, even though I know my mom reads this (sorry, Mom), because it was a cussin’ kind of weekend, to say the least.

 

We got to the festival right at the tail end of the Mud Wrestling contest, which was being held out behind the Millennium Center in Winston-Salem, NC, the HRW site. Half-dressed muddy people were being hosed off as a crowd looked on. The Cassic Car contest was still underway, so we checked out the amazing vintage cars parked along Trade Street. There were also lots of motorcycles.

As we walked around, I was soaking in the crowd. I wanted to take pictures of everyone there. The rockabilly/punk/outlaw country scene-sters are a distinctive looking bunch. Lots of tattoos, piercings, men with fifties greaser-style hairdos and women dressed like fifties pin-up girls. The predominant color scheme was red and black and white. Which, interestingly, are colors I wear all the time.

 

The Millennium Center is the perfect space for HRW. Upstairs is a spacious room with wood floors, which held the Main Stage and lots of cool vendor booths. Downstairs held the dark and steamy Underground and Jailhouse stages. The Jailhouse area really used to be a jail, with the cells now intimate rooms with tables and candlelight.

 

Honestly, I was a little nervous about playing. I have never been to a festival like HRW before, and I was hoping we could connect with the tough-looking crowd. I shouldn’t have worried. We hit the Main Stage at 8:00 pm. The room was full. We gave it our all and got lots of good juice from the crowd. It was a truly satisfying experience. The folks at HRW were overwhelmingly enthusiastic and kind to us. Hopefully I’ll get some pictures of us playing from someone.

 

Right after we played was the very popular “Wet Wife-Beater Contest” (you know, those white men’s undershirts, though there were other kinds of shirts worn, and no shirts, and lots of ice water). Everyone seemed to have a terrific time – contestants and crowd alike, politically-correct sensibilities be damned. Afterwards, I saw the winner in the bathroom, wringing out her socks and discussing the specs of the other contestants with her friends (a colorful conversation, let me tell you).

 

Since we were done playing, the rest of the night I got to really relax and rock out to some fantastic bands. I saw so many great bands, I can’t list them all, but I’ll mention a couple that stood out the most for me.

 

I was right up front for the Cheats, a hardcore punk rock band with a killer stage show complete with pyrotechnics. The crowd was sweaty and off the chain. The lead singer has a huge belly with “Cheats” tattooed across it. When he wasn’t singing, people from the audience were pouring beer down his throat. The crowd also threw beer cans at the Cheats, and at many other bands I saw over the course of the weekend (which meant they liked the music).

 

One of my favorite bands all night was Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival, who describe themselves as, “Lo Fi on a Jesus High: The 2-headed beast that’s gonna kick the devil in his nuts.” I thoroughly enjoyed their music, theatrics and tongue-in-cheek humor. Not to mention their junkyard instrumentation. Check them out on YouTube (better yet, in person), I don’t know if any description I could give would do them justice. Note: Look at the photo on the left for the woman in the crowd holding snake – she’s got religion for sure. Oh, and the beer can hitting the flag. (You know you can click on the photos in this blog to see them bigger).

We truly had a blast. We got to hang out with our buddy Doug Williams, who recorded Found a Reason at his studio, Electromagnetic Radiation Records. HRW was perfect place for us to celebrate together. We also hung with our friends Flash and Carrie Faye, the only other Ashevillians we knew of there. After awhile, things were winding down, so Jason and I finally drug ourselves back to the motel, completely spent from a hard day of rockin’. Ironically, we found Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” movie on the T.V.

 
Sunday afternoon kicked off with the “Banana Pudding Eating” and “Beer Drinking” Contests. I caught the messy end of the beer drinking contest, which ended up in a tie. I couldn’t believe that those guys didn’t pass out. (The picture to the left shows one of the winners soon after the contest, trying to hang for the Black Knots). As the two winners struggled to stand up, a very familiar surf tune blasted over the P.A. It took Jason and I a second to realize that it was OUR tune, “Big Noise from Krekel”. The sound guy, Dave, had gotten a copy of Found a Reason the day before and was playing it through the system. I was beaming inside – Mad Tea Party as the musical footnote to the HRW Beer Drinking Contest (aren’t you proud, Mom?)!

 

Sunday definitely had a “demonic” undercurrent. Many of the bands had a dark element to them. The lead singer of the Deadneks was made up like a zombie. He sang, “I want your skull, give me your skull.” Two women dressed in rebel flag bathing suits and covered in fake blood were also part of the Deadneks’ show.

 

But the act that really hit my squeamish buttons was “Adam The First Real Man.” A vaudeville/circus act, Adam performed various feats ranging from simple magic tricks to sword swallowing. One trick was “nose whiskey.” This involved Adam putting a tube through his nose and using a syringe to squirt whiskey through the tube in his nose and into the mouths of eager volunteers from the audience. Eeew. He had a couple of other performers with him, Sally and Lex Jones a.k.a. The Jones Family Circus, that did a “Frankenstein” act. OK – basically one woman (Frankenstein) fed worms to her “creature.” That’s right – I actually saw someone eat real live worms! There’s a first time for everything, I guess.

 

We headed out as the Bass Slapping contest was getting underway. We might have stayed longer (Jason even toyed with the idea of entering the Guitar Playing contest), but we leave this week for a 3 week tour and we have a ridiculous amount of things to get organized before we go.

 

The Heavy Rebel Weekender was unlike any experience I’ve ever had. We were glad to have been a part of it. I sure hope we get to play there again next year!