Even if this fanciful situation is unlikely (though a clever YouTube inclined video editor surely could create their own version of spliced clips and bad overdubs), we thankfully can watch the Supersuckers school the too cool to (actually) rule snobs and fools out there each time they hit the stage. The band has been around a long time, sure, but they still have a live show that outreaches most bands by a catapult shot. Get It Together, the group's 2008 release, may have some slower numbers, but nonetheless still sits comfortably amidst the band's best work. Not bad for a band past the twenty year mark!

It's weird that some younger kids don't realize what a truly great punk band these guys are. "Punk" is a term that sells short the sheer brilliance of the live chemistry between the band and especially between guitarists Rontrose Heathman and Dan "Thunder" Bolton. Those two will make you dizzy with their interplay, and yet it is still rooted in the best that down to earth punk rock has to offer. A lot of younger kids discovered fellow devil-racers/troublemakers Zeke when they put out some LP's with Relapse, but the Supersuckers haven't had the same luck. Fact is, their fan base is awesome but getting a bit longer in the tooth. This isn't to say that younger fans aren't made along the way, but it shit sure means that these guys deserve more respect as far as I'm concerned. Where's the tribute album? Still, they've just about done it all, at least, all that really matters doing.

It's because of this pedigree (which includes sharing the stage with everyone from the Ramones and Social D. to newer acts like Supragroup) that the Supersuckers are not just awesome, but purveyors of awesomology. This includes finding the time to drop in and rock the shit out of even tiny, threadbare yet meaningful and run by true believers venues like Kingston, New York's The Basement. The club is small and not much to look at, but it hosts killer shows week after week and, despite a sound system that was not as ball-busting as the Supersuckers are used to these days, almost always a great place to get your beer on. In the short time since owner Rob Stango took over the place from when it was a hovel called The Forum (where I saw a friend/bartender wipe his dick around the edge of a glass once and put it back in the stack of "clean" cups), Stango has managed to help inject extra life into the Upstate,NY rock scene. Upstate struggles a lot, but it continuously spits out amazing bands every few years (from Autopilot Off to current acts like Casket Architects, Tiger Piss and Nightmares For A Week). Eddie Spaghetti and cohorts coming through is a blessing! It's also a chance to drink and ogle cow-punk girls!

The first thing that was right about this show was the the Hudson Valley's finest crooner and craziest storyteller, Peter Head, was the first opener. Head has fronted the “Apocabilly” band Pitchfork Militia for over 15 years, and I'll be damned if they aren't one of the most consistent bands I've ever seen. Why they never broke at least as big as Mojo Nixon or someone blows my mind. Imagine real country vibes mixed with careening, twangy Primus meets The Damned bass lines and blistering telecaster guitar atop shuffling, moonshine drums and topped with nasal, murderous vocals about incest, tumbleweed and dildos, and you've got “the militia”! I booked the band’s first ever Woodstock show over a decade and a half ago and they have stayed busier than flies on shit ever since, churning out tape after tape after CD after MP3. Pete is a true artist and a lifer; whether the crowd is five, fifty, or three hundred, he's gonna rope 'em in and give his all. As goofy as Head can be (what a great sentence!), he's also a really deep dude, capable of making you feel something profound and thoughtful one minute before veering left and singing, “Jesus lives in the Carolinas, that much I know/they don't care much for vaginas/their Southern way is slow”.

Peter Head lets his careening, punkier side loose with the Pitchfork Militia, but opening this Supersuckers bill he drew mainly from his Pitchfork Wreckerds solo material, which ranges from harrowing, more traditional country songs to acoustic versions of Pitchfork favorites like "Hard Year". The man commands attention even standing alone and dimly lit, and when he tears into the, "Yeaaaahhh!" chorus of his solo album Rodeo's finest track, "Arizona", if you aren't moved then you've got dust in your veins. Oh, he also has a nasty habit of hiding pictures of his dick in band art. Anyway, suffice to say, Pete fuckin' killed it.

Being sandwiched between Head and the 'Suckers means you are probably just in the way, and I have to say that while I hear they are nice people, I was pretty unimpressed with...shit, I forgot their name…

The second band on the bill was called Rented Mule and were earnest enough. Heck, I hear one of the dudes even helped convince the Supersuckers to come to town, but I have to say they bored me to bits. There was another female fronted, country-influenced Hudson Valley band who played slow, alt-country a few years preceding now. They were called Jake and they had ten times the stage presence of this band. The singer was nice and all, but way too self-absorbed. I am really almost always super-nice, and they weren't terrible by any means, just really...flat. I am sure they are better on recording, but after the bare your guts (and veiny cock) vitriol of Peter Head, and the anticipation of seeing the band that once wrote a song called "Juicy Pureballs", snoozers weren't on the menu.

The Supersuckers took the "stage" (you have to walk up on the stage to go to the restrooms) to cheers and jeers a bit shy of the witching hour, I think. I don't really know for sure. I was amped up and buzzed and couldn't believe they had come to my shitty town. The Basement really is a fun place to see a show, although when a fan said, "We're glad you came here!", Eddie Spaghetti responded with a smirk, “Good! 'Cuz we'll probably never be back." I introduced myself to Rontrose after the show and told him I'd interviewed him by phone for this very publication and he admitted they were having a fun time, though. They may be sorta "rock stars", but they can still hang.

Highlights of the set included a crowd approved "Pretty Fucked Up", Get It Together's tearjerker "She Is Leaving" and the working class anthem "Paid", the latter of which had the band locked in the hypnotic and undeniable rolling, country groove. When the boys hit into the mid-tempo bomp of "Rock Your Ass" the relatively docile, (i.e., pussy ass) older crowd got some life in them, but I have to say I was pretty fuckin' disgusted at how uptight everybody was. When someone finally was next to me dancing around like they oughta, I realized it was an energetic girl I briefly dated years ago and then I drunkenly tripped, completely knocked over and landed directly on top of our mutual friend in front of her (way to earn maturity points yet again, me).

Anyway, Supersuckers fucking own. They still have "What It Takes", and you all need to "Listen Up"!