Friday night was psychobilly night, with a rare reunion performance of 80s Belgian psycho band The Swampy's (they released 1 LP + 1 EP in those days) which combined the energy of 1986 with the sound of 2010, followed by the always musically and visually perfect Frenzy, while The Meteors were their usual self, though according to people that know him better then I do Paul Fenech seemed to be in an okay mood.

I saw a lotta bands I didn't know this weekend, starting off with Johnny Trouble & the Ramblin' Man (D) playin' some rockin' 50s and 60s countrybilly bop. Originally they were a trio, then a quartet, now they're a five piece. Lead singer's got a cool voice, they got steel, and the drummer I recognised from The Rewinders (Suisse). The Barbwires (SWE) played some mean and loud but melodic instro surf, Gizzelle (USA) didn't make it due to passport problems and had been replaced by the beautiful Sue Moreno from Holland, delivering a set of rock & roll classics + songs from her new cd with Jack Rabbit Slim (UK). Backing up Sue were The Antwerp All Stars, who in reality are none other than The Seatsniffers (B).

During Th' Legendary Shack*Shakers' set the summer heat was blown away by a thunderstorm and lightning, while the trees were swaying dangerously in the wind. What can you say except that it suited their bible belt music! Reverend Horton Heat was professional as always, mixing his classic stuff with new material. Luis & the Wildfires (USA) brought a blistering set of wild early 60s rock & roll mixed up with garage rock and even The Rolling Stones (Get Off Of My Cloud), but Luis Arriaga is such a great performer that he managed to get away with it. Wild In The Head indeed! It's been a couple of years since I'd seen Big Sandy but what a delivery it was, in a simple four piece line up (no steel). Some solid rockers + a lotta jazzy guitar by Ashley Kingman in the slower songs. Big Sandy's voice only seems to get better over the years.

The Darnell Woodies (USA) brought some kinda singer-songwriter music but played with a bluegrass line up. This would have sounded better sitting on a terrace enjoying a fruit beer than served up as a festival opener. No surprises from The A-Bones (USA) who still play the exact same frat rock and garage that they've played forever, with Billy and Miriam still the two same enthusiastic music lovin' persons off stage. And Marcus The Carcass is still as skinny.

The Ragtime Wranglers (Holland) are best known as Miss Mary Ann's backing band but are a fine instrumental trio by themselves, playing a very funky instro set with a lot of fingerpicking. They only played self written numbers with one exception, the surf classic Thunder Reef. Moonshine Reunion are local boys doin' good and got a wild reception with the gals front stage screaming at every guitar solo. How about a follow up to your debut cd Sex & Trucks & Rock And Roll, guys? It's about time! Local boys doin' even better are of course The Seatsniffers who crammed 15 years, a 1000 shows, a dozen albums and 100.000 kilometres of life on the road into a one hour show. To put it simply: genius, even though we've come to expect no less from 'em.

The Dragtones were part Los Angeles part Sweden, with Luis Arriaga now leading them in a different direction than yesterday: wild early 60s rock & roll with a touch of surf and razorsharp guitars. More to my personal taste than what he did yesterday evening. They got a 45 + a cd comin' up any day now on Wild Records. The Paladins (USA) have layed low for a couple years but are back now. I'd had forgotten how good they are, and boy did they deliver the goods, in the line up with drummer Brian Fahey. The magic is still there, and it was like runnin' into a good friend that you haven't seen in years. Hope they come back soon.

The very last band of the weekend was another discovery for me: The Rocket Room Rhythm & Blues Revival Revue featuring Howlin' Pelle. Or something like that. Never heard of these Swedes, but they blew me away. Literally: with tenor sax, baritone sax, piano, two guitars, e-bass and drums this was a seven piece band whoopin' it up behind Howlin' Pelle (I've been told he's in reality the singer of The Hives) actin' like a cross between a white James Brown and a white, er, Kermit The Frog. Guess he asked the crowd like 500 times "do you love me?"! Man, I've been known to do some crazy stuff on stage myself, but I'd never dare to do what Pelle did. Great visual show with a very Little Richard style gay-like performance by Pelle, all done tongue in cheek of course. It seemed like rock & roll theatre, but it sure rocked, the music bein' wild screamin' black rock & roll of the Slowdown, Short Fat Fannie, I Put A Spell On You, The Girl Can't Dance type and basicly all of Little Richard's classics.

A fittin' end to a rockin' weekend! If you ever plan to make the trip, Sjock is held in the tiny town of Gierle in between Antwerp and (Rockin' Around) Turnhout every year around the first or second weekend of july. www.sjock.com.

Frantic Franky

Frantic Franky: I sing with Los Fabulous Frankies (MySpace) and Million Dollar Sunrise (MySpace), write for Boppin' Around mag (used to be a printed mag from Holland, now online only and MySpace), do some announcing at festivals (you can see my name in the small print at the bottom of the Sjock poster above), used to do some live sound mixing for bands, used to roadie, been known to deejay on occasion. As long as it's rockabilly, I'm all for it!