Drink and complain

Come with me children, to a dark and benighted time - an era before you could easily buy CDs by Scandinavian KISS fans ... a time when grunge had cast an occasionally good but frequently horrid pall across the land ... a time when, to paraphrase The Supersuckers' song, rock'n'roll records weren't selling that year. This was around 1992, and apart from The Didjits - whose Rick Sims actually ended up in the Suckers for a spell - there just wasn't a lot of hard rock outside the bland mainstream. Of course, I speak as someone just dipping his toes in music at the time ... a more knowledgeable past self would have mentioned UIC and others. But for a lot of people, The Supersuckers were a cool anomaly (and not just on the Sub Pop label, which was the band's home at the time) and 1992's The Smoke of Hell was a rare rock blast. It was actually one of the first CDs I bought (before then, I spent my money on cassettes and vinyl).
Times have changed. You have your Hellacopters and Turbonegro, your Mutts and Living Things, your Michelle Gunn Elephant and Asteroid B-512, not to mention such world class native exponents of rock power as Le Nombre and The Chickens.
The Supersuckers are hardened veterans now - they formed in 1988 - and their core of Eddie Spaghetti, Ron Heathman and Dan Bolton have stayed put. Damn, was that a longwinded way of saying they put on a great show but I've turned into a jaded SOB? On to the pictures!

As is their wont, The Supersuckers kicked things off with a few country numbers. Cocaine Blues was first out of the gate "You don't need many reasons to play a song by this man these days" observed Spaghetti. I also recognized The Best of All Possible Worlds by Kris Kristofferson.



Ron joined in on guitar.



And here's a similar pic, with added shutter speed silliness.



Here's one of Dan "Thunder" Bolton that worked out real nice.



The Suckers seem to go through a fair number of drummers ... last I heard they were working with Eric Akre, so I guess this is him.



Ron was all far away, so I broke out the telephoto for a closeup.



Eddie on bass.





Rock action!





The devil's horns at a Supersuckers show? What kind of crazy world is this!



These pictures could have turned out better, but as you might have guessed, a crowd of hopped up Supersuckers fans is not the best place to take photos, and Zaphod's was pretty full. They asked for some transport help at the show - their van broke down - so I hope they made it to Montreal.

• Show reminder: The Golden Famile and Casey Comeau and The Centretown Wilderness Club bring overlapping membership goodness to the Rainbow. The Meathookers, The Sweet Janes and Preachers from the Black Lagoon play Cafe DeKcuf.