Live Gig Review
The Supersuckers
Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool
April 2025
And so tonight we get the dream pairing of “the greatest rock n roll band in the world!” at the “greatest rock n roll venue in the world”. Now both those are pretty bold claims (and I may have made up the second one, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true) but it would be a brave soul who would disagree with either in the Waterloo tonight.
Surely the best kept secret in rock n roll, quite why The Supersuckers aren’t colossal remains one of the great conundrums of music. But those who do know, know just how phenomenal the legends that are The Supersuckers truly are.
Taking to the stage bathed in hazy green light (apparently the Waterloo has a new smoke machine!) Eddie Spaghetti, Marty Chandler and Chris Von Streicher career through over twenty rock n roll gems in ninety minutes, however had the set been twice that length the crowd would still have been baying for more such is the power and appeal of The Supersuckers.
For this is a band that embody the very spirit of rock n roll and have been doing so for well over three decades and thankfully show no sign of letting up. Most bands would leave their best-known track until the end, but The Supersuckers aren’t most bands. They’re going to do things their way and so it is that the beautifully profane Pretty Fucked Up is the first song of the night. Unsurprisingly the place erupts, folk losing their minds left, right and centre, singing dancing, throwing themselves around with the sheer electric joy that only the best rock music can deliver. And that’s only song number one!
All the Time, Evil Powers of Rock n Roll, Rock n Roll (Ain’t Selling This Year), the songs fly by at a relentless rate, the crowd lapping up every last chorus, every bass run and every singalong opportunity. Marty Chandler on lead guitar, throws out the coolest, most sublime riffs and solos that would make the angels cry and the devils sing, the dangerous gunslinger partner to Eddie Spaghetti on bass. Eddie meanwhile is his customary black clad self – shirt, shades, cowboy hat - the epitome of the suave, saturnine frontman, absolutely at home on stage, effortlessly comfortable in the knowledge that he and his band are a devastating live proposition. They do say that any band is as good as their drummer, so if The Supersuckers are the greatest band in the world that surely that means that Chris Von Streicher is the greatest drummer in the world, and on tonight’s form he does a damn fine job of living up to that title.
The beauty of the band is their ability to write and play songs that connect and appeal to rockers of every taste. From gritty head down rockers that would almost have been at home on a Motorhead album to country-tinged stompers, whatever they turn their hand to, it’s electrifying, fun, and plain, bloody magnificent and leaves you with a smile the size of Idaho plastered across your face. And all those different elements are front and centre in tonight’s performance, as we all worship at the altar of rock n roll at its most honest, authentic and wonderfully decadent.
Their drum head bears the legend “Evil since 1988” – well if The Supersuckers are evil then all here tonight are happy sinners and would willingly follow them down that hell bound trail, as their last song Born with a Tail testifies.
They do say the Devil has the best tunes and if you need proof of that go and see The Supersuckers live and dangerous. In fact, if you haven’t seen them already, you really need to remedy that and catch one of the most unique bands ever to grace UK stages, whilst you still can.
Greatest rock n roll band in the world? Hell yeah!
