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Review - Hank Pine and Lily Fawn, The Unsettlers, Sala August 2

by Iceman
Firstly, the Unsettlers. I saw this band play their first ever show fourteen months and some eighty gigs ago, and have seen many shows in between and it reaffirms one undeniable truth: there is no substitute for hard work. While they’ve always been one of the most interesting and fun bands in the city, what especially impressed me about last night’s show was how polished they were. The addition of a bass player along with the bowed cello added a groove to their macabre waltz-y laments, and elevated them out of the Tom Waits-Leonard Cohen shadow that dominated their earlier shows. Walking in right away during the first song I could hear the difference this renewed rhythm section made. These guys are real entertainers, they looked great, sounded great, and managed to transform the standing crown into a dance mob before things were all said and done.

I’d heard Hank and Lily referred to as the best band in the world on more than one occasion on the days leading up to this show, so the stakes were high. One thing’s for sure, as far as guy-on-guitar-girl-on-drums duos go, these guys could definitely stand alongside The White Stripes, and maybe even blow them out of the water. I spent the first couple songs mostly wondering how the hell Hank’s insect-uous gas mask/microphone contraption worked. It was in impressive invention, and the Billy Childish-esque distortion on his vocals was sublime. Best band in the world or not, these guys were fucking amazing, full of blues garage collectables about death, dying, old age, Alzheimers, the apocalypse, David Hasselhoff, and Christ. Hank’s driving guitar riffs and Lily’s stand-up rolling drums (when she wasn’t on trumpet or musical saw) were destructively powerful and ragged. Besides Hank’s bleeding punk bleat, Lily’s squealing singing was drop-dead-fall-in-love charming. Really, really great band, really really great night, and put on your seat belts because the Unsettler’s and Hank & Lily are doing it one more time, this Tuesday, at the Barfly. This “secret” show will mark the end of Honky Tonk Tuesday’s at the Barfly, a local institution for the last year. RIP HTT’s, you will be missed.