Supersuckers “Must’ve Been Dirty 2025” Tour w/Scott H. Biram and King Sickabilly
Eddie Spaghetti of The Supersuckers @ Smalls Bar 12/05/2025 - All Photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
Normally, my preferred sub-genre of punk rock is hardcore, and at tonight's show, the closest we would get to that would be the opening band, Saber Tooth Gary. The next two bands, King Sickabilly and Scott H. Biram (the H. is for Fuck You), seemed to be psychobilly and blues, which are hit-or-miss with me. I love The Supersuckers when they play their punk/rock songs, but I've also seen them do full-on country sets. We got there early for Saber Tooth Gary, with our fingers crossed that they wouldn't be the highlight of the night. Saber Tooth Gary absolutely killed it, but luckily, they were nowhere near the highlight.
King Sickabilly was probably the biggest surprise of the night for me. I'd seen Saber Tooth Gary and The Supersuckers each several times before, and Scott H. Biram came highly recommended by the friends I was with, but none of us had heard King Sickabilly before. It was just the two guys, playing their entire set under blue light, but the energy was intense and the sound was perfect. I like psychobilly a lot when it's done right, and these guys did it right.
Scott H. Biram (the H. is for Fuck You) came out in true fashion with a "Fuck Off" hat, a stack of amplifiers, and 5 or 6 guitars. He had over a dozen different pedals and a pad that he was using to control the drum sounds with his foot. As you may have guessed, Scott is a one-man band playing dirty blues and playing it well. The songs were good, and he stopped the show in the middle to switch to complete darkness other than a spotlight on his face, where he anointed members of the crowd with Jack Daniels. The show was amazing, but I was ready for The Supersuckers.
Metal Marty Chandler of The Supersuckers @ Smalls Bar 12/05/2025 - All Photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
Christopher von Streicher of The Supersuckers @ Smalls Bar 12/05/2025 - All Photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
It wasn't a country set, and as usual, The Supersuckers reminded us why they are the greatest rock-n-roll band in the world. For the umpteenth time we were hoping that they would play "Can Pipe," and they didn't. I had put together an extensive playlist for the car ride down, and this time it had "Can Pipe" every 5th song. I guess by the time they finally came on, I didn't actually need to hear it again. It was close to a 20-song set that opened with "Pretty Fucked Up" and included favorites "Mudhead" and "Rock-N-Roll Records Ain't Sellin' This Year." They did a shout-out to Ron "Rontrose" Heathman before playing "Ron's Got The Cocaine," and maybe the highlight of the night was the new songs from their recent album "Liquor, Women, Drugs & Killing" (my favorite being "Maybe I'm Just Messin' With You"). They did a couple of Metal Marty Chandler's solo songs, and finished with their usual encore of "Born With A Tail," which had everyone's middle finger in the air. Whenever they come back, I'll be there again.
