The Heavy Rebel Weekender 2008 was held in the fabulous Millennium Center in downtown Winston-Salem, NC. This was the 5^th consecutive HRW I have attended. Unlike some festivals, I enjoyed this one just as much as the first. Due to other commitments, we could only attend on Friday. Last year I had vowed to attend all three nights, but alas, this was not to be.

The parking garage where we usually park was closed, but a block away I easily found parking. The usual vintage cars lined the street, including several that we had not seen before. A very cool chopper with a coffin shaped gas tank was by the steps leading into the Millennium Center. The door staff was very pleasant, as usual, and we were inside the venue in no time. There was lots of room for the vendors, who sold a wide variety of interesting items from vintage clothes to full size concert posters and buttons. The official merchandise tables were moved into the vendor’s area, and a small cafeteria line was set up in the space they had occupied last year. There was a nice selection of food which was actually vegetarian friendly, and if we had realized this we would have arrived earlier without stopping for a meal before heading to the venue.

The first band we saw was Gojira X, who thrilled the crowd with their own brand of rock n roll. Downstairs, Hick’ry Hawkins was rawkin’ like a madman. To paraphrase David Allan Coe, “if that ain’t Rockabilly, you can kiss my a**”! In the jailhouse, the Motorpsychos added more than a touch of metal to their punkabilly, and there was a whole lotta thrashin’ goin’ on. We dashed upstairs and caught Los Rudos as they thoroughly stoked the crowd in the Underground on our way up, and succeeded in hitting the beach in time to see Reverend D-Day and the Shockers as their fiery sounds of salvation rent the night.

The Bo-Stevens were next, I parked myself right in front of the center stage, determined to have the best available vantage point. Richard recognized me, and even though their set was bout to begin, he was nice enough to walk over and shake my hand. The Bo-Stevens are as talented as they are friendly, and their show was simply awesome, even surpassing last year’s fine performance. Richard belted out the songs with abandon. Billie was a virtuoso on the bass. Mark kept up a frantic pace on the drums. Greg truly jammed on guitar, and Jeff picked on the mandolin and steel petal with the best of them. Putting the ‘tonk back in Honkey-Tonk with a vengeance, the Bo-Stevens belted out classics such as “Red Neck, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer”, “Folsom Prison Blues”, and their own great material. I was thrilled to hear “Baby Got Gone”, my favorite song from their first CD, and songs from their new release as well.  Reluctantly leaving the main stage after the Bo-Stevens’ set, we saw the Crank County Daredevils in all their glory, but couldn’t get close because they were packing them in!

Meanwhile, I chatted with my brother, who said that Jimmy and the Teasers were a blast. Remembering their show last year, I hated to have missed them. The Lords of the Highway had the standing-room-only crowd worked into a frenzy. Sugar did things with the bass that had to be seen to be believed! The Lords were so rousing that a couple of people started moshing. What happened next is one of those things that exemplifies Heavy Rebel for me. In stark contrast to most Punk and Psychobilly shows, and even a Deathrock festival that I attended, the moshers were just having fun, and didn’t try to show how big and bad they were by attacking bystanders. The surrounding crowd good-naturedly kept the guys in their improvised pit, and when the song ended everyone turned back to the stage. The music was too good to miss! Afterwards, we wandered upstairs and caught the end of Dexter Romweber and the New Romans, as they jumped, jived, and wailed. We decompressed for a while, resting our feet and chatting with friends and strangers alike.

This is one of the things that makes the HRW so great. People are friendly and considerate. Even when the Underground was jam-packed, people left a path for people to get through. If someone wanted to get by you, they gave you a good-natured pat on the shoulder, with none of the shoving and belligerence that I’ve encountered at other events. A number of people stopped to compliment us on our outfits, which was very cool. No matter how you were dressed, either to the nines or casual, there was a sense of community. At HRW, I have never seen the fashion-show mentality and snobbery that characterizes other “scenes”. In much of the Goth scene, for example, if you don’t dress up people look down their noses at you, but if you dress to the hilt they squall that you are “elitist”. Go figure. (Maybe everyone should just go naked. No, wait…that’s’ the Fetish scene!) Anyway the point is that the Heavy Rebel Weekender has about the friendliest crowd of any event I’ve ever attended, and that alone is worth coming back for. The music is fun. There is none of the pretentiousness that I’ve seen in some bands who just take themselves far too seriously.  (You know, the kind of bands who stop talking to you because you don’t smooze with the ‘right’ crowd.) At Heavy Rebel, It’s not about who you are, who you know, or what you wear. It’s about the MUSIC, and the camaraderie of people who support it. That’s what ‘community’ is all about, and that’s the hallmark of The Heavy Rebel Weekender. We can’t wait for HRW ’09!

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