Nashville Pussy / Earl of Hell - Bannermans, Edinburgh 31st October 2024

There was no fannying around or beating about the bush as growler-in-chief Blaine Cartwright fired into a set where the subject matter of the songs was almost equally divided between sex, drugs and rock & roll, with a bit of violence and one about BBQ. Blaine was definitely feeling ‘in the pink’ but the whole band must have been doing kegels as they were up-tight and in the groove throughout with Bonnie Buitago on bass looking like the cat that got the cream pie, Ruyter Suys trading licks and beavering away on guitar, rubbing out solos like a female Angus Young and there was even a snatch of Mike Hunt on backing vocals.

‘Come On, Come On’ was an early highlight; the track having found fame on the soundtrack to ‘Peacemaker’ in a car scene featuring John Cena and Eagly. It was performed as a call and response segment, despite Ruyter having to correct the audience that their part was “Fuck Yeah” not “Fuck You”. If you were looking for a hole, you wouldn’t find it in the set list which was stuffed with finger-licking good songs like the Scrabble-smashing ‘Gonna Hitchhike Down to Cincinnati and Kick the Shit Outta Your Drunk Daddy’ and a cover of ‘Testify’ which fitted into the set like a hand in a velvet glove in all-you-can-eat Pussy buffet of songs.

Blaine likes to think inside the box and his between songs vagina monologues were entertaining. There was no flapping and he never muffed his lines once, not even on ‘Til the Meat Falls Off the Bone’ which turns out to be about getting outside in the (lady) garden to smoke dope and slip some meat on the BBQ. That was the last song of the main set, but with no beef curtains to hide behind, they cracked on to beat the curfew, even although it wasn’t really a close shave.

Bannermans is always a tight fit and definitely not as roomy as a wizard’s sleeve, so it was a bit clammy and sticky inside with a full house in attendance. You had to be careful not to spill your pint or bang your head on the archway in order to avoid a nasty gash but it was (vertical) smiles all round in the well chuffed audience, not least when Ruyter was dispensing Jack Daniels into the crowd, sadly directly from the bottle not a furry cup, and Blaine doing the Southern version of a shoey by drinking beer out of his hat.

The glorious ‘Why Why Why’ was part of the encore, including my favourite line from a song, expressing Victor Meldrew-esque levels of disappointment; “I can’t believe I shaved my balls for this!” I’m pretty sure no one needed to finish themselves off after this set and the band will CU next Tuesday at The Ferret in Preston. I don’t know if they have a tribute band but if they do I hope it is called Nashville Merkin.

No relation to the Duke of Earl or ‘My Name is Earl’ on the TV, Earl of Hell are a local band dispensing fuzzy, psyched-up stoner rock in the manner of QOTSA, although they don’t have anyone with the effortless cool of Josh Homme and will need to work on their stage patter.

They have got some good songs though, including the western-themed desert rock song “Hang ‘em High” and they have raised over £3k on Kickstarter towards a debut album which is underway. As it was Halloween, there were a few interesting looking folks in the audience, including Clockwork Orange droogs, a female Fred Durst and some slutty zombies, although it turned out the look they were aiming for was just zombies! The band’s contribution was a song about Burke & Hare, which it transpired was about the famous local body-snatchers, not the similarly named pub, which is one of three strip bars on the Edinburgh corner known as the pubic triangle.

The band have some support dates lined up for January and February supporting Brant Bjork Trio.