Photo taken by Wim
Photo taken by Wim
After 4 years waiting The Reverend Horton Heat finally played again in Holland. The Rev played in the old smaller hall in the Melkweg which was fully packed with mostly psychos. It was a festival with 7 other non-psycho bands and the festival was already sold out at 7 pm, so a lot of people that came from France and Germany to see the show couldn't get in. The Rev played from 00:10 until 1:40 am, and in my opinion gave an extremely good performance. It was just like when I saw them for the last time 4 years ago. He did all the songs the fans wanted to hear. They didn't promote their last album at all, I believe they only played 2 songs of the new album "Space Heater".
Photo taken by Wim
The band opened with Big Sky followed by of course Baddest of the Bad. But when that song began the pit was already a mess. Everybody was wrecking, shirts off, and an occasional bloody eyebrow. Other favorite songs they played were 400 bucks, Bales Of Cocaine, and of course psychobilly freakout. During this song he started preaching (like 4 years ago) that women with tattoos go straight to hell. Actually the only song I missed was liqor beer and wine...
After the show the Rev and Jimbo talked to some people in the bar. They agreed that 4 years is way too long, and they promised to come to play in Europe more often, hurray! The Rev explained that 3 or 2 years ago they had to choose between making $10,000 in one night in the States, or earning no money at all in a whole month touring Europe. (it's no excuse for the fans I think, but okay, it IS a lot of money). I asked him if the two bottles of jack Daniels he drank on stage 4 years ago were real or if it was filled with apple juice. He had to laugh and admitted that it was real. He said that the rest of the tour went down pretty bad because he got so drunk that night in Amsterdam. He also said that It's Martini Time, didn't have an official release in Europe, it was a bootleg according to him here, and was surprised I had it. Because it wasn't official released in Europe they didn't go touring in Europe during "Martini time" as well. Yet another explanation for their 4 years absence. I think the fans could forgive them that night, after playing such a good show.