Hayseed Dixie

There are times when, frankly, I end up being lost for words. They don't occur very often - which is good, given the number of blogs I run - but when they do, they last for some time. Which is why I am posting this review a fortnight after the gig. You see, this was a perfectly normal show, with a band, an audience, a bar and - inevitably - a mosh pit. But the thing is, the mosh pit was, well, squaredancing.

Yes, squaredancing. To cover versions. Of Green Day. And AC/DC. You can see why I have spent the last few days being a little confused.

For the uninitiated, Hayseed Dixie are what you get when you cross The Dukes of Hazard with the Baron Knights and Half Man Half Biscuit. Bluegrass versions of Straight To Hell, Holiday and Devil Woman might not be everyone's cup of tea (and if the last one doesn't have Cliff Richard turning in his grave then it is about time he was), but hell, these guys sure know how to put on a show. It would be very easy to look at Barley Scotch, Reverend Don, Brother Jake and Pastor Dale and scoff, but you don't get away with stuff like this if you are not a fucking good musician in the first place. Dale's reinvention of Angus Young as a mandolin playing hillbilly is spot on, and like the rest of AC/DC the rest of the band know exactly what their roles in the whole charade are.

As evidence of their musicianship, they throw in a number of original songs - Poop In A Jar, anyone? - which sound as if they could have been written by the bands they are so successfully spoofing. Which is why it is so disappointing that they choose to end on the old country cliche, Duelling Banjos. After an hour of perfect recreations of Holidays In The Sun, I Don't Feel Like Dancing and the like, to close proceedings with the C&W equivalent of fretwanking is a squib damper than a sweaty dungaree crotch.