Photo Credit: Anthony_Nguyen
Sarah Shook and the Disarmers
Dwight Yoakam is coming to town next week. It’d be cool if he sang a song about Sarah Shook and ended with a cover of one of the North Carolina country singer’s songs.
Why not? The approach certainly proved to be entertaining and successful for Shook and the Disarmers at the Cactus Club on Tuesday, July 9. After playing “Dwight Yoakam,” their original song about a guy “who sings just like Dwight Yoakam” from their first album, the band ended the show by covering Yoakam’s atmospheric 1993 classic “A Thousand Miles from Nowhere,” much to the delight of the crowd, who loudly professed their love for Shook as she left the stage.
Shook started the love-in early in the show by declaring Milwaukee and the Cactus Club “an oasis” she had circled on her calendar where she knew she would see many friends after hundreds of days and nights on the road over the course of the last year.
Indeed, as evidenced by the packed and enthusiastic Cactus crowd, Shook has built a deep and dedicated following in Milwaukee after several appearances in the city in recent years.
Emerging from the Triangle area of North Carolina, a holy ground of the alternative country movement of the late 1990s, Shook writes juiced up, wired up, fucked up songs with Real Live Hurt like “Good as Gold,” “Heal Me” and, yes, “Fuck Up.”
The familiar country themes she visits in these songs carry the same life-threatening risk that George Jones once sang about: “Honky Tonk Myself to Death.” But several factors prevent this sad fate from occurring: Shook’s low-key but fierce delivery, the humor and heart of her lyrics and the boss backing of the Disarmers, especially the red-hot guitar of Eric Peterson. Shook and her songs emerge scathed but proud; there’s a little puke on the portable CD player, but it still pours out the pain just fine.
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The band frequently interacted with the crowd, especially bassist Aaron Oliva, a Madison native who was invited to do a bass solo after his hometown was revealed to the crowd. He politely declined.
Shook and the Disarmers headlined the show, but the lineup also boasted a diverse and thrilling undercard in Big Eyes from Brooklyn and Los Angeles-based solo performer Sunny War. Led by Kait Eldridge, Big Eyes offered riffs aplenty and a heavy metal, pop and punk mix that was both smart and fun. Sunny War (aka Sandra Ward) was equally engaging and charming, introducing one song as “Here’s another one I don’t want to play,” and finishing with an excellent reimagination of Johnny Cash’s “Get Rhythm.” Her guitar picking split the difference between Memphis Minnie and Wreckless Eric.
