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Review: A weekend with the Hacienda Brothers and the
Knitters

By Parry Gettelman | Monday, December 10, 2007, 02:03
PM

Last weekend offered one inspired pairing — the
Knitters and the Hacienda Brothers at the Continental
Club Saturday night — and one thorny dilemma — whether
to leave before the end of the Hacienda Brothers’
Sunday afternoon show at Gruene Hall in order to catch
at least the last half of the Knitters’ second night
at the Continental.

The list of bands I’d care to see two days in a row is
pretty short, but both the Knitters and Hacienda
Brothers are on it. The Knitters, a country mutation
of the punk band X featuring Dave Alvin on electric
guitar, has a sly comic bent, as you might expect from
a group whose “hit” (No. 2 in Czechoslovakia, claimed
singer-acoustic guitarist John Doe Saturday, before
pretending to argue with singer Exene Cervenka about
the year of this achievement) was a tribute to road
kill called “Poor Little Critter on the Road.”

But the Knitters frequently sounded downright
ferocious, even while cutting up. Their wacky “The New
Call of the Wreckin’ Ball” was delivered with as much
abandon as songs from X’s back catalog, including “In
This House That I Call Home,” “Skin Deep Town,”
“Burning House of Love,” “The New World” and “I Must
Not Think Bad Thoughts.” Though re-imagined with a
distinct twang, there was no mistaking them for
honky-tonk tunes with Doe and Cervenka’s lashing vocal
harmonies, Alvin’s serrated solos and the
runaway-locomotive rhythm section of Jonny Ray Bartel
on stand-up bass and D.J. Bonebrake on snare and a
washtub kick drum.

There were less raucous moments, including Doe and
Alvin’s melancholy duo take on Merle Haggard’s “Silver
Wings,” a jolly “Something to Brag About” and a
version of Alvin’s “Dry River,” a song Doe rightly
proclaimed ought to be recorded by Haggard. But even a
tuning break took a sharp left turn, when Cervenka
started to improvise to Doe’s guitar as he checked the
intonation and the rest of the band launched into
spiky free jazz.

The Knitters jammed the accelerator pedal on the folk
standard “Rock Island Line,” which didn’t stop until
it was going so fast derailment seemed imminent, or at
the very least a small conflagration.

The Hacienda Brothers were less combustible, but no
less exciting. They also fit just as untidily into the
country category. Guitarist-accordionist Chris Gaffney
is one of the best soul singers on the planet, while
singer Dave Gonzalez’ lead guitar style is steeped in
the 3 a.m. blues (although the duct tape holding his
wrist bandage together — he had a motorcycle accident
last summer — was definitely more punk). Bassist Hank
Maninger and drummer Dale Daniel have a subtle jazzy
flair, and pedal steel guitarist David Berzansky is
equally adept at providing apt fills and atmosphere,
or launching into sparkling, swinging solos.

The Haciendas’ Saturday set leaned toward the soul
side, with their own gorgeous “What’s Wrong With
Right?” and “Walkin’ on My Dreams,” as well as a
stirring version of the Percy Sledge hit “It Tears Me
Up.” Gonzalez and Maninger sang pristine harmonies on
the Intruders’ “Cowboys to Girls,” seguing beautifully
into “Just My Imagination” and back.

Alvin stood behind the stage grinning, sometimes
shutting his eyes while Gaffney sang, until Gaffney
brought him back onstage to help sing his own “Fourth
of July.” Alvin initially shoved his hands deep into
his pockets, not knowing what to do with them absent a
guitar, but then began doing a modified twist, to
cheers from the crowd, still sizeable with closing
time closing in.

The Hacienda Brothers sounded even better some 14
hours later at historic Gruene Hall.

“It’s all that old wood,” explained Daniel during a
break.

The long afternoon slot also permitted the band to
stretch out more on solos, indulge requests and mix up
a wide variety of material, including their own
brooding honky-tonker “Mental Revenge,” Johnny Cash’s
“Home of the Blues,” Dave Dudley’s truck-driving
anthem “Six Days on the Road,” and an accordion-fueled
and turbo-charged version of the Box Tops’ “Cry Like a
Baby.” A rendition of Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met
You Baby” demonstrated an accordion can be just as
bluesy as a guitar. The original country/surf-rock
instrumental “Railed” got the crowd on its feet.

Leaving after only a few hours was tough, but the
Knitters, as it happened, were even more galvanic than
on Saturday. The lovely ballad “Someone Like You”
afforded a brief respite in a succession of
hard-rocking numbers that concluded with a demented
version of “Born to Be Wild.”

There were some repeat tunes from Saturday, but all
were even more fierce, and one reached a pinnacle of
punk intensity. Doe invited singer Cindy Wasserman
from his solo band to sing harmony on the Knitters’
version of the traditional “Walkin’ Cane,” which
suddenly escalated into a stomping blues ending. Just
before the crucial point, Alvin motioned for her to
move out of the way. She looked a bit taken aback, but
he shot her a quick look of apology before unleashing
a solo that had him thrashing around like a downed
electrical wire. Even when he’s moonlighting as a
country picker, Alvin’s guitar could use a “Danger:
High Voltage” sign.

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