The Cedar Presents
WACO BROTHERS with Jake La Botz and Jon Langford & Alice Spencer of the Bright Shiners
Saturday, July 6, 2024 / Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 8:00 PM
All Ages
Standing
$23 Advance, $28 Day of Show
This is a standing show with an open floor. To request seating or other access accommodations, please go to our Access Page.
General Admission tickets are available online.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Shaking off the plague days like a snake sheds its skin, the WACO BROTHERS stumble out of the empty, burning desert with a fierce thirst and an epic new album: The Men That God Forgot, their first collection of original tunes since 2016.
"Clash meets Cash" – Rolling Stone
Waco Brothers performing “Building Our Own Prison” courtesy of Audiotree’s YouTube Channel.
Waco Brothers
Shaking off the plague days like a snake sheds its skin the WACO BROTHERS stumble out of the empty, burning desert with a fierce thirst and an epic new album: THE MEN THAT GOD FORGOT. It’s the first collection of original WACO tunes since 2016’s GOING DOWN IN HISTORY and comes to you via their own label Plenty Tuff Records.
The Waco Brothers got together in Chicago in the mid-90s; battle weary punk musicians who wanted nothing more than to play classic country covers for free beer in their adopted home city. Their residencies at bars like the Wrigleyville Tap and Augenblick became legendary for the sheer volume, speed and energy they brought to this task. After an early and particularly deranged appearance at SXSW, Rolling Stone dubbed the Wacos “Clash meets Cash” and they unleashed a fistful of ferocious albums and endlessly entertaining live gigs that defined the Insurgent Country movement.
Every night is still Friday night for the WACO BROTHERS but these new songs lace that reckless exuberance with a more sober awareness of the tsunami of cynical corruption & materialism that infects our everyday existence. BEST THAT MONEY CAN BUY rips its verses from what’s left of honest journalism while IN THE DARK provides a requiem for functioning democracy AND boasts the best twin-lead guitar solo since Thin Lizzy. The album ends with NOWHERE TO RUN a deceptively gentle dance number (inspired by a night on the Outlaw Country Cruise where the Wacos backed up their hero Lee “Scratch” Perry) that presents the struggle for social and economic justice as neverending. GEORGE WALKS WITH JESUS is a song about George Jones walking with Jesus.
“It's the mission of the Waco Brothers — a Chicago-based outfit that Langford started in the mid-90s — to bring blood, sweat, and tears back into country music.… They have a rather romantic view; I doubt that, this side of Merle Haggard, any American country act has written a furious hymn to organized labor like the song "Plenty Tough and Union Made.” – KenTucker, NPR
The WACO BROTHERS lost their powerhouse drummer Joe Camarillo to a stroke in January 2021 and it took some time to regroup. They’d often been joined onstage by violinist Jean Cook and drummer Dan Massey (ex-Robbie Fulks) who had deputized for Joe for years, so now the time seemed right to add them both as permanent members. The current line-up is: Jean Cook – violin & vocalsTracey Dear – mandolin & vocalsAlan Jesus George Jones Mr. Spanky Captain Giggles Sproketts Doughty Vega – bass & vocalsJon Langford – guitar & vocalsDan Massey – drumsDean Schlabowske – guitar & vocals
THE MEN THAT GOD FORGOT is the 10th Waco Brothers full length album and was recorded with Mike Hagler at Kingsize Soundlabs in Chicago in 2022. The cinematic brass parts were arranged and performed by longtime collaborator Max Crawford with Dave Smith. Other Waco Cousins appearing are Barkley Mckay on piano and organ, Patty Vega on jingling tambourine and Andre Michot of the Lost Bayou Ramblers on accordion.
“Where does this pack of goofy bastards get off thinking they can one-up our national heritage? But they do, damn it. Jon Langford has always utilized his extracurricular time with the Wacos to exorcise the C&W demons that have lurked in his work with the Mekons since the 1980s. Where great Mekons albums integrate a vaguely folkish, space cowboy vibe, the Waco Brothers sound like real-deal ten-gallon hatters with a grouchy streak and a subscription to The Nation. Sure, there's a William Blake nod on occasion, but mostly, Langford and co-singer/songwriter Dean Schlabowske invoke the spirit of the common man, crank up the hollow-body guitars and rock their wary ways.” – Pitchfork
"The Waco Boys! The Rainbow Men!” – Lee “Scratch’ Perry
To learn more about the Waco Brothers:
Jake La Botz
Jake La Botz’s rough and tumble Chicago upbringing took him from juvenile delinquency and punk rock to learning blues from the last of the Delta bluesmen. From there, with guitar in tow, he made his way across the U.S.A. until he hit the end of the line in Hollywood where an improbable acting career began to unfold.After getting clean from heroin at thirty years old, La Botz became a Buddhist meditation practitioner and teacher. He also took his bluesy guitar licks to the Greater Mt. Zion Church in South Central L.A. where he steeped himself in gospel music. Ever since then La Botz has been putting out his own brand of Gospel-noir Americana. The eccentric stories, characters, and underlying spiritual messages often heard in his songs come to a head on his latest album Hair on Fire.Among more than twenty film and TV credits, La Botz has acted in True Detective, Rambo, and On the Road. His most recent film, D.O.A., stars fellow musician John Doe from the punk band X.Beyond music and acting, La Botz is also a writer. A collection of short fiction is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press and a graphic memoir is also in the works.
To learn more about Jake La Botz:
JON LANGFORD & ALICE SPENCER OF THE BRIGHT SHINERS
Jon Langford's been in more bands than you have digits- and that's true even if you were born with a few extras! From his early days in Mekons, Delta 5,Three Johns and even Sisters Of Mercy to a veritable explosion of one-off recordings and performances with more names than we could ever hope to list in full. A Wikipedia description for this group,The Bright Shiners (described therein as 'circa 2022 through at least 2023,in Northern California') provides some sense of the complex taxonomy needed just to keep track of Jon's massive oeuvre. Happily, that's an understated description of a serious new outlet for his endless creativity, and The Bright Shiners' recording activities have produced a full album, Where It Really Starts, the first recording in a collaboration with Tamineh Gueramy, Alice Spencer,and Jon's frequent musical partner, John Szymanski.
Jon's never sung or written better, and the sense that the band realised they were onto something great is palpable in an instant. Each song is a minimalistic jewel-there's nothing here that doesn't need to be-yet the album is unsparing of aptly astonishing adornment - wonderful harmonies, horns, mellotron, bowed guitar, piano.looped percussion and more), by our reckoning this is one of Jon's finest works of art and his best outfit outside The Mekons themselves.
To learn more about Jon Langford:
To learn more about Alice Spencer:
