Mudhoney/Supersuckers Weekend

You can read Kate Harper's much more in-depth review of Friday night's Mudhoney show elsewhere on this site (just click the Mudhoney tag at the bottom of this post to find it), but I put in an appearance at the Horseshoe Tavern to see the band as well.

I've had a few Mudhoney albums over the years and like some of their songs, but never considered myself a big fan. But since I'd never seen them before and they hadn't been in Toronto for 10 years, I figured I owed it to myself to check them out.

I don't wear earplugs as often as I should at gigs, but I figured they'd come in handy for Mudhoney. They did. The band was loud and the crowd was boisterous, and one of the ceiling fans got twisted into a new shape by a few crowd-surfers. A friend got even more twisted when the band bought her three shots of tequila at the end of the night, but that's a story for another time.

The set was solid, but unspectacular. I've now seen Mudhoney once, so I don't have to see them again.

I've seen The Supersuckers before, however, and have always enjoyed them. They didn't do their "big show," where they play a country set and then a rock set. But Supersuckers frontman Eddie Spaghetti and guitar tech/roadie Jordan Shapiro's opening set of drinkin' and druggin' country songs essentially acted as part one of the big show and set the stage well for another rawk performance where earplugs were the right option.

"Creepy Jackalope Eye" and "Pretty Fucked Up" were my personal set highlights, but I had no quarrel with anything that The Supersuckers played.

The 20-year-old band have released a handful of live albums, compilations, EPs and singles over the past few years, but they'll issue their first full-length studio effort since 2003's Motherfuckers Be Trippin' on Nov. 25. It's called Get It Together and you can pre-order it now in different formats from The Supersuckers' website.