Written by Eddie Ferranti
The first time I was ever exposed to what is called “Rockabilly” music, I was really smitten. The band was The Stray Cats and I was in the sweaty confines of a club called Numbers in Houston, Texas. They went on to be MTV darlings and even made it to the US Festival in California on the mammoth stage in front of 125,000 fans with only 3 “cats”. The sound which features stand-up bass really gets you movin’ and recently I finally got to catch a band I’d heard of from San Antonio called Two Tons of Steel. They’ve been crankin’ out their high energy music since 1994 and incorporate more raucous punk into the mix which makes it even more infectious.
Frontman Kevin Geil looks more like a CEO of a company than a boogie woogie Elvis style bad ass leader of a sound that has taken him from Texas to the Grand Ole’ Opry, the National Theater in Havana, Cuba and European tours spreading the word of Texas Country rock!
The current line-up is celebrating the 20th years of Two Tons and sounds stronger than ever led by KG on vocals and shimmy shake acoustic, solid electric guitar rock of Brian Duarte, bottom backing of Rich Alcorta on drums and super “whack n’ go” bombastic Jake Marchese on upright bass!
They strolled into the venerable McGonigels Mucky Duck for their first visit to which Geil’s remarked: “Y’all will either be dancin’ on the tables or we’ll be loading the van early out front!” Well, that surely did not happen as they blistered the crowd from the get go with gems like “All Tied Up”, killer “Crazy Heart”, and “You Know” about him getting his butt kicked by his wife’s ex-cop boyfriend. They kept the songs rollin’ with minimum chit chat keeping the audience back on their proverbial heels enjoying the crisp clear sound that the Duck always delivers.
Geil made lots of references to the band being “in the garage” and that is a key to their grounded blow you away style. “Run Away Baby” ruled and a slap at the Munich Beer Fest for making them search for over 3 hours and still finding “No Beer” was epic indeed. “Not That Lucky” was a CD they released in 2009 and it reached #4 on the Americana charts with the title track scorchin’ the place.
To me, a cover tune they did embodied their sound with a story about needing to do one more song to be paid $100 for a gig. Tore it up with the Ramones “I Want to Be Sedated”! KG then told yet another great tale about the band’s “Sweet White Van” that was being laid to rest and many good miles of touring.
Down to earth just doesn’t seem to be cool enough to describe Mr. Geil. I should have known it would be a good gig when I saw him in the rest room before the show and told him to “break a leg”. He dead panned : “I think I’ll break two thank you!” The guy reminds me of performers I dig like Chuck Meade and Chris Isaak. Then, when he broke out Brian Henneman’s Bottle Rockets tune “Indianapolis” it just slayed me!
Since 1995, Two Tons has been doing “Live from Gruene Hall” where more than 150,000 loyal fans have supported the summer long event. Sweet gig indeed. In parting, as KG said throughout the evening, “Can you give me a Two Tons?!” Yes sir I can and plan on doing it a lot more in the future. Y’all should too…Peace and Live music.