If you’ve ever been fortunate enough to find yourself front and center in witness of the thrashabilly spectacle that is Southern Culture on the Skids, you already know that the trio’s studio work just barely translates the manic power they bring to every show, every club, every night. You also know that if you’re positioned just right, you’ve got a shot at a chunk of KFC’s finest when the roadies start flinging chicken as the band launches into “Eight Piece Box.� Dinner and a show...hot damn. Sadly, there’s no “Eight Piece Box� on SCOTS first ever live album, Doublewide and Live (Rick Miller is probably waiting for the technology to be able to actually produce the smell of fried chicken when the songs starts on the CD), but there is every other evidence of SCOTS’ sloppy mastery over domains as varied as surf guitar (“The Wet Spot,� “Meximelt�), mutant rockabilly (“Doublewide,� “Cheap Motel�), Sam the Sham pop shivers (“Banana Pudding�), and shredding punk blues (“’69 El Camino�). SCOTS has such a basic set-up (Miller on guitar, Mary Huff on bass, Dave Hartman on drums, just as its been for nearly the past twenty years) that it’s easy to miss the fluidity and subtlety of Huff and Hartman’s foundation as well as the diversity and depth of Miller’s astonishing guitar playing, usually with his left hand gripped around the neck of a cheap ass, pressed wood Danelectro. If you’re looking for refinement and polish, keep moving. But if you’re in the market for cheap cologne, beer sweat, chicken grease, industrial strength hairspray and the absolute best time you’ll ever have at a rock and roll show (or with the resultant live album), SCOTS is a little bit of trailer trash heaven right here on earth.
