Rip-roaring with the Reverend Horton Heat
By Ryan Ritchie

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY

The pairing of the the good Reverend Horton Heat and Long Beach’s most well-known icon—a title won by the Queen Mary the day Snoop Dogg moved away—makes sense in a backward kind of way. In their day, they both topped out on speed and style—Mary so much that Hitler offered a quarter-million bounty to any sub captain who sank her and Horton so much that even critics Beavis and Butthead gave them the royal treatment. And the larger point: they both do a better older era proud. Horton’s singer/guitarist Jim Heath and bassist Jimbo Wallace (plus whoever the hell is playing drums for them this tour) are still at the top of their genre, even with three recent clunker albums. The trio began during the mid-1980s and shook up the rockabilly, punk and indie worlds by doing the unthinkable—playing traditional rockabilly without sounding generic or uninspired—and the group’s first five discs are a rip-roaring sonic assault. Check out 1999’s best-of Holy Roller, with the Reverend playing his Gretsch like the bastard son of Chet Atkins. Their live shows became legendary for Heath’s Nudie suits and cowboy hats and an act that climaxes with Heath climbing on top of Wallace’s bass during each performance. As essential as their first five records are, the rest are hit-or-miss, but Heath and company still can make the standard E-to-G chord progression sound like a whole lotta fun.

REVEREND HORTON HEAT WITH DEADBOLT, CHARLEY HORSE AND MANY MORE THE 4TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL INK AND IRON TATTOO FESTIVAL | THE QUEEN MARY | 1126 QUEENS HWY | LONG BEACH 90802 | 562.435.3511 | ELECTRICINKED.COM | GATES FRI 2PM | REV. HORTON HEAT AT 11PM | $25-125 | ALL AGES