Jason burns a new one with The Scorchers:

Double CD from one of the finest live bands

By Steve Terrell, The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 29, 1998, Friday

Copyright 1998 - 2004 - New Mexican, Inc.

Midnight Roads and Stages Seen by Jason & The Scorchers just might be the first double live rock ‘n’ roll album to start out with a quote from Rudyard Kipling: “He who rides the tiger has a difficult time dismounting.”
Anybody familiar with the music of The Scorchers would argue that the opening quote isn’t appropriate. Since the early ‘80s, they’ve been riding a crazy tiger, ripping down false barriers among punk rock, metal and honky-tonk. They dismounted or you’d probably say “bucked off” for a few years at the start of the ‘90s, but by 1995 they were back with the surprisingly good A Blazing Grace, and the next year followed that with the surprisingly even better Clear Impetuous Morning. And somewhere along the line The Scorchers became one of the finest, hard-rocking, ass-whoopin’, pig-biting live bands in the world.
Jason Ringenberg hops around the stage in his red Nashville nightmare jacket and jaunty cowboy hat, sometimes flailing an imaginary whip (as if to make the tiger giddy-up?). Warner Hodges looks like The King of Hell, with an evil smile and his eyes all ablaze and his guitar screaming with unholy delight, playing licks closer to those of Keith Richards and Kirk Hammett than to Chet Atkins.
Perry Baggs has a crazed Charlie Starkweather expression, pounding violently on his drums, while new bass player Kenny Ames, wearing overalls with no shirt last
time I saw The Scorchers, appears meaner than any security guard until he smiles and nods at individuals in the audience.
So it seems natural for The Scorchers to do a live album a double live one even. This was culled from a series of shows from their hometown of Nashville, Tenn., last November. Of course, folks, this is no substitute for seeing Jason in concert. (And unfortunately for locals, I don’t believe they’ve ever played in New Mexico. Correct me if I’m wrong.)
Like most live albums, the hoodoo that invisible spirit flowing back and forth between the performer and audience member tends to hide when the mikes are turned on. (There’s a video, sold separately, of live Scorchers from the concerts that this set came from, and for the compooter buffs out there, there are video clips and other goofy stuff on the CDs themselves. But the point remains.)
That doesn’t mean that this two-disc set is one of those generic contractual-obligation products, as is the case with many live albums. Jason and the boys have a lot of unexpected thrills for their fans here. In addition to their “greatest hits” Broken Whiskey Glass, Help! There’s a Fire, 200 Proof Lovin’, their cover of Bob Dylan’s Absolutely Sweet Marie, etc. The Scorchers also dig through their 16- or 17-year backlog and dust off some sweet obscurities.
And not all these are rip-rompin’ rockers. Somewhere Within, for instance, is a sweet acoustical song from A Blazing Grace that The Scorchers never had done in public before. This could be the only live CD in which the guitarist’s parents take the stage for a song. However, Eddie and Blanche Hodges were country musicians before Warner was born. And Mamma Blanche sounds great on Rufus Thomas’ Walkin’ the Dog.
So as live albums go, this is a good one. Long may The Scorchers ride that tiger.

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