Photo credit: Blaine Schultz
Reverend Horton Heat
What seems to be the daily thunderstorm blew through the area just in time to offer up clear skies and rising mugginess for the Summerfest performance of Jim Heath’s alter ego, the Reverend Horton Heat, on Sunday, June 30, at the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse.
Using his three-decade recording career as a chronological roadmap, Heat and his band tore through high-speed rockabilly instrumentals that employed generous use of his fat-body Gretsch guitar’s Bigsby vibrato bar (“Psychobilly Freakout”), country toe-tappers built on Chet Atkins-inspired picking and surf music.
The songs, as such, served as launch pads for Heat’s prodigious guitar playing. But this was as much a show as it was clinic. Long-time member Jimbo Wallace cut a striking figure on upright bass, and Racine-native Arjuna “RJ” Contreras played nearly everything onstage during his drum solo.
But it was boogie-woogie piano player Lance Lipinsky who commanded whatever spotlight was available at 4:30 p.m. Sporting a cartoon-size ducktail and wearing a silver lamé jacket, Lipinsky took the stage with his Jerry Lee Lewis-inspired antics at the keyboard, even standing atop it. And as if in acknowledgment to the musical spirits, the band covered Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” and Elvis’ “Viva Las Vegas.”
Read more of our Summerfest coverage, including editor picks, concert previews, daily promotions and opinions here.
