It’s been five years since vocalist Greg Miller, bassist Ken Miller and drummer Leo P. Love emerged from the smoldering wreckage of Cleveland’s Cowslingers, acquired guitarists Bobby Lanphier and Dave Bowling and set about reinventing Rockabilly by applying a thick, viscous layer of Punk sneer, Country twang and Garage snot. The group rolls it all in gravel and yard clippings, douses it in sludgy, overused motor oil and torches it with a lit cigarette on the mayor’s lawn at midnight, watching it burn while finishing off the last can of a $4 case of cut-rate beer iced down in the rim of the spare in the trunk of a 1986 Rust DeVille (because coolers are for sissies). The group christened this little hillbilly caprice “Whiskey Daredevils.”
There aren’t many guarantees in life, but whatever the time or circumstance one thing is dead solid certain: If Greg Miller and the Whiskey Daredevils are in town, a good time will be had by them. And if you’ve got any sense at all, you’ll join them — it’s always best to be behind the Daredevils’ headlights rather than in front of them where the roadkill stands.
They play the Northside Tavern. Get show details and Sound Advice here.
This article appears in Sep 2-8, 2009.