Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 8, 1994 TAG: 9412140046
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS HENSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Some of us leave school early. Some of us have to work. There's the bumper-to-bumper drive to Mom and Dad's. Some of us get together with our friends and say to our surrogate family, ``Hello, my name is John, and I couldn't make it home either.'' There's the turkey and the Vesuvius of mashed potatoes oozing gravy.
Soon we've eaten and can't get up.
The only bromo worth taking involves the annual T-Day trip to the Iroquois Club, where one active ingredient, Southern Culture on the Skids, has us shaking like Quakers.
And the pounds just melt away.
For the past seven years, the Iroquois has been the place to spend Thanksgiving night. This year, several hundred people made the pilgrimage there to watch Southern Culture trash it up. The annual show has become a turkey-day tradition.
Iroquois owner Shirley Thomas, who marks every legal-age hand with an ``OK'' at the entrance, always looks forward to the event. ``The band is family,'' she says. ``It's like they're coming home.''
Southern Culture is a hillbilly thrash band from Chapel Hill, N.C. Two of the three members come home to Roanoke every year for Thanksgiving to visit. Bassist Mary Huff and drummer David Hartman spent almost 300 days touring last year, circling the globe.
When Southern Culture on the Skids steps on stage they look the part. Rick Miller, the guitarist, sports overalls and a straw hat. Huff wears a polka-dot thrift-store number and bouffants her hair to Tammy Wynette height. Hartman stands at his drum kit in early American hobo.
The music is a greasy mix of high-octane Appalachian surf, country blues and sausage gravy. With its twangy guitar and gut-bucket beat, the band is earning a pole position on the NASCAR circuit of the music biz. They've been featured in Rolling Stone, Spin and Alternative Press magazines. Recently, they've inked a deal with Geffen Records. Perhaps you've heard of some of Geffen's other bands: Guns 'n' Roses, Nirvana.
``It's one of the few chances we get to see her anymore,'' says Mary Anne Huff, mother of Mary Huff. ``They work so hard. When they're not on the road or recording, they practice every night from 11 to 6 in the morning. Sometimes I catch her on the phone at 4 a.m.''
This year when Mary Huff sings ``Daddy Was a Preacher, But Momma Was a Go-Go Girl,'' Momma Huff joins the band on stage and dutifully shakes her groove thing. ``There are some songs I just have to dance to,'' she says. ``Like `Hip Shake Boogie' and `Biscuit Eater.' I just love those.''
She's not the only one. The dance floor is a stampede of ornery fans.
Then there's the woman in the Evel Knievel cape. Lee Hunsaker is home for the holidays, and she brought her friend Elvia - in a leopard-print leotard - with her from Austin to witness the spectacle.
Hunsaker is invited to join the band in singing ``Viva de los Santos.'' Miller hands her a wrestling mask, which, by some miracle, matches the Knievel cape alluringly. She puts it on and begins striking Elvis poses - arms out, cape spread open and flapping. The band gyrates along and then comes to a screeching halt. In the silence, Hunsaker shouts: ``VIVA - DE - LOS - SANTOS!'' And the pandemonic twisting continues. Another Elvis pose, this time on one knee. Happy Thanksgiving.
Other attractions include a lively limbo contest and five women strutting on stage to the Skids fave ``Eight Piece Box.'' There's Miller in his Kurt Cobain wig singing ``Nashville Toupee.'' Says Miller, ``Keep the wig on the lid and the weave on the sleeve. Slap the glue on the doo and sing them country blues ...''
Mary Anne Huff is clearly proud of her daughter. But she also is practical when it comes to the Skids' new success.
``It's like anything,'' she says. ``Southern Culture is so different, and different bands never make it big. We're holding our breath - hoping. When they do a video, I'll feel better.''
Then she adds: One thing I look forward to is when some of these local radio stations will play their songs.''
But it's Thanksgiving, for Pete's sake. And this is the Slacker Class Reunion at the Iroquois. It's the fatted turkey and the return of the prodigal band. Shirley's ink on the back of your hand late Friday morning means this indelible truth: Southern Culture may be on the Skids, but it's still ``OK.''
Coming up at the Iroquois this weekend are Radar Rose and Millan Kencic on Saturday. On Dec. 18, it's David Wilcox. Make plans for New Year's Eve with Agents of Good Roots, a critics' choice alternative-jazz band from Richmond.
Mary Anne Huff's son Juddy and his band LOAD will play at Corned Beef &Co. in downtown Roanoke on Dec. 15. The Fabulous Night-Crawlers will blues it up there tonight. Lightnin' Charlie and the Upsetters will do the same on Saturday.
Off the Clock is a new occasional column about Southwest Virginians having a good time away from work, in local nightspots, the theater and at formal and informal gatherings. Roanoke musician and free-lance writer Chris Henson finds himself out in a variety of places, picking up ideas and suggestions to pass along to you. His column will include advice to make the best of your weekends, or as he puts it, ``to demystify the act of going out in Roanoke.''
by CNB