Last Thursday - Rough Chukar w/ Mickie Rat and Eoin

Last Thursday, our friends from Seattle, Rough Chukar, stopped in Sacramento for a day to play a free show at R5 record store on Broadway. There were a lot of other shows happening that night, so I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but everything turned out great.

Rough Chukar was supposed to be bringing another Seattle band, Whiskey Tango, with them. Their show on Wednesday night in Eugene ended with the bass player of Whiskey Tango throwing his bass down in the middle of the set, walking out, and disappearing. They figured he'd just gotten upset about something and gone off to cool down. He'd left his jacket, phone, and all his equipment so they figured he couldn't have gone far. After the show was over, they drove around looking for him for a while but couldn't find him. A call from his dad revealed that he'd jumped on a flight to New York and would not be returning.

Whiskey Tango decided to stay on the tour, minus a bass player, and continue on to Sacramento. On the way, their van all but broke down. They ended up missing the show completely and rolling into town around 3:30 am. Talk about a rough fucking tour.

Besides this, the show went awesome.

Mickie got up first and did some acoustic songs solo. After a while, he invited Eoin (fellow Grid Rat) up to join him and they played a couple more songs, including a favorite of mine, their cover of "Make a Circuit" (which is a cover of the Phenomenauts covering another band). Feet were tapping and heads were nodding, but the crowd that had gathered couldn't possibly have been prepared for the thuderstorm that is Rough Chukar.

I hate the call bands - or anything - "intense", but there is no other word I can think of that more accuratly applies to Rough Chukar. Singer Rev has a deep, snarling voice, something like Jordan from Final Summation and Dave from Ashtray combined. You'd never think it either, considering he's this cute little five foot nothin' Leprechaun. The drummer, David, gives his drumset such a beating during each set that I'm frankly surprised it didn't try to hop a flight to New York with Whiskey Tango's bassist. Rough Chukar's bassists' hands never stop moving, weaving catchy, complex bass lines, and the double guitar sound is explosive and harmonic all at once.

To sum it up, you find your out of breath and wondering what time it is when Rough Chukar is done playing. They're fucking amazing and they should be coming back sometime this summer. Keep your eyes and ears open for shows!

They all stayed at my house afterward and ended up getting wasted enough to see how many of them they could fit into my dog's cage. (FYI...four of them, three if you don't count Kiel from Final Summation)

Seattle is lucky to have Rough Chukar. They're amazing musicians, smart people, and fun guys to hang out with. Hell, they even cleaned my house up before they left! Everyone go to their myspace and check them out, you won't be sorry.