Hank Williams III is one of the most interesting and entertaining live acts to see. His shows are fierce, musically sweeping, and charged with whiskey and pills – you know, like grandma.
The first set is Hank III. This is an ode to when country was country. It was rough, ragged, and emotional. A time when country was dangerous and passionate, not the modern incarnation of dressed-up, fagged-out, soulless, mindless Top 40 ear diarrhea that is lame and gutless shit-pop dressed up in a stetson and presented with a fake country twang. You know, sing songs about the family, the wife, the country that are overt passes to get “Americana’s” attention focused on flat, lifeless music that by no means represents grit or real life experience. Hank III harkens the time when country music was about struggle – internal and external – whiskey drinkin’ and face punchin’. True fucking Outlaw. Hank III relies on some gritty originals, some country classics and the vast wealth of his grandpa’s (Hank Williams) music. His uncanny physical and vocal likeness to his grandaddy makes the experience that much more “real.”
“Those Pills I Took”
A tribute to real country – “My Country Heroes”
A vicious version of ¬†Johnny Cash’s “Cocaine Blues” with the full band on the attack – drums, slide, acoustic, stand-up bass, banjo, and fiddle.
The next phase of a Tricephus show is Hellbilly. This keeps the same country band and style intact with the addition of electric guitar and a harder edge. The result is a combination of hard rock and psycho-billy to produce hellbilly music.
Hellbilly is a brutal hard rock version of Outlaw country
Here is where a Hank III show goes absolutely apeshit. His third set is the Assjack incarnation of the band. All country pretenses are shelved for full-on, balls-to-the-wall hardcore.
It is so amazing that this is still the same show!
This is an Assjack medley of Van Halen, Ministry, and Slayer. Too cool.