Hank III -- Santa Ana, CA -- August 21st, 2012

[christopher]

Last night, I went and saw Hank III at the Observatory in Santa Ana. Before I go any further, this thread better not be moved cause of the country portion. The later half is metal. Hank III even has a listing on metal archives right here.

Anyways, the show had been sold out for several weeks. I wasn't sure I was going to see this tour. When the tour was originally announced a few months ago, I went and bought tickets for the HOB show in Hollywood right away because the Santa Ana show hadn't been confirmed yet. My gf's bday was the day after the HOB show, so I figured I could go. In the end, I had to sell my tickets cause my gf wanted to do her bday celebration on Friday. When I decided to sell the tickets, I went to get tickets for this show and the website said sold out. I was really bummed but figured I would just forget about it and just go on with my life since I had already seen Hank four times. Well one day, about two weeks ago, I randomly got an email with a link to tickets for this show. I decided to click on it and I found out more tickets had been released. I bought one immediately. I went back to that site a little bit later to find out the show was sold out for good after that. I was so happy I got a hold of tickets.

Last night I arrived at the venue around 7:15. I found one of my friends outside and started talking for a bit. I went inside a little bit later and grabbed some Jameson and went up front to wait for Hank to go on. I felt really weird when I got to the stage. I'm used to seeing Hank at the Roxy in Hollywood. That place has a low stage with no barrier. This place had a barrier, so we had to be further back than normal. I had a nice spot on the rail, but soon had to take a piss and by the time I got back, I lost my spot. I found another spot in the center, but I was second back behind the rail. Now most of you would think this is a pretty good spot to be in, but nope! It kind of ruined it a bit for me. Mostly the people around me. Every time I have seen Hank, I would be in the very front, screaming my ass off and flailing my arms around like a mad man This time I was pinned between 6 fat men who weren't really moving around. I was getting super rowdy while the two guys in front of me were being lame as fuck and just standing there and occasionally taking pictures with their phones. Then the other guy next to me spent most of the set trying to get people to take a picture of him standing in front of the band performing or taking pictures or his beer in front of the band performing. It was so damn annoying!! I tried to block it out as much as possible, but it was difficult.

Anyways, the Damn Band sounded amazing during the country set. Hank definitely sounded spot on the entire time. It was weird not having Straight to Hell as the opening song. That has been the opening song since 2003. Its good to change it up a bit, but still weird to see something new. I was extremely happy when he played 7 Months, 39 Days. About half way through the set, some guy next to me screamed 5 Shots of Whiskey. Hank was standing a few feet away from the mic at the time and yelled back "5 Shots of Whiskey?" So we all made it a goal to keep yelling that in between songs until he played it. He only played the first half of the song and went into Gutter Stomp. After Straight to Hell, Andy Gibson started playing something weird on the stand up steel. I wasn't sure what it was until I heard the lines "That bitch, she stole my cocaine..." At that point I lost my shit! I never ever expected to hear him play Cunt of a Bitch!!!! That was one of my favorites off of the last album. It's so damn angry and aggressive. You should all look up that song asap. When they played it, it seemed like it was the first time they played it live. I've listened to the song many times and know the lyrics, but I kept getting lost cause Hank kept changing up what part of the song they were at. I think he just kept forgetting the lyrics. I was especially bummed when he left out the part "That bitch, she stole my cocaine, and now she's on the run. I'm going to pistol whip her with my fucking loaded gun"

As soon as Dick in Dixie ended, Hank turned around and grabbed an electric guitar and went into the Hellbilly part of the show. If you don't know what the Hellbilly set it, look it up. It has such a unique sound to it. It's still his entire band from the country set with the fiddle, stand up bass, banjo and steel guitar, but he played fast and aggressive psychobilly/punk. I was only expecting three songs, but was surprised to hear him do five. I've never heard Runnin and Gunnin live, so that was awesome so see. I haven't seen Tennessee Driver during the Hellbilly set before. He would always play it during Assjack, so it was cool to see it with the Damn Band backing him up. I'm still bummed it's not like it used to be with at least 10 Hellbilly songs, but it is what it is.

After the Hellbilly set ended, no more than two minutes went by and he was already playing the riffs to Dopesmoker. The guy in front of me left, so I was right against the rail The ADD set was just Hank on guitar, Zack on keys, and Shawn on drums. After about 10 minutes, he went into Holy Mountain and played all of it! They sounded heavy as fuck and I was loving every second of it. Anyone who loves doom should check him out. In the background, there was a weird and fucked up movie called Tribulation 99 playing on the overhead screen projector. It went perfectly with the music. He played most of the ADD album, minus a few songs. I was bummed that he didn't play I Feel Sacrificed, but w/e. I was super stoked when he played all of Fighting the Devil Inside of You by Earthrider!! Last time, he only played the opening riff.

After the last ADD song, Hank grabbed a bandanna with the eyes and mouth cut out and put it on his face. Then he put on some war armor and got ready to go into the last set of the night. 3 Bar Ranch is another unique thing that he created. He basically plays the voice of cattle auctioneers over the pa while he plays metal as fast as he can. In the end, it just sounds like a bunch of noise, but its fucking epic. You just need to experience it live to understand how awesome it is. The Tribulation 99 video was still playing and the fucked up music was just making the video even more perfect. Around midnight, I was just ready for the show to end cause my feet were killing me from standing for the last 4 hours.

As soon as the show ended, Hank did what he always does and got off the stage and did a meet and greet with all the fans. He is truly an amazing artist. After performing for over three and a half hours, he still makes sure to take a picture with everyone and sign anything people bring him. I ran to my car and grabbed my ESP Viper and had him sign it. He was doing signatures until 1am!! I have so much respect for him. I can't wait until the next show!

Country [8:45-10:25]

1. Nighttime Ramblin' Man
2. Thrown Out of the Bar
3. I Don't Know
4. Smoke and Wine
5. Trashville
6. D Ray White
7. Long Hauls and Close Calls
8. Crazed Country Rebel
9. 7 Months 39 Days
10. Country Heroes
11. Rebel Within
12. Pills I Took
13. Gutter Town
14. Day by Day
15. Punch, Fight, Fuck
16. Outlaw Convention
17. Troopers Holler
18. Dyin Day
19. Ghost to a Ghost
20. 5 Shots of Whiskey [only first half of song]
21. Gutter Stomp
22. 6 Pack of Beer
23. Straight to Hell
24. Cunt of a Bitch
25. Not Everybody Likes Us
26. Dick in Dixie

Hellbilly [10:25-10:40]

27. Runnin and Gunnin
28. Tennessee Driver
29. Life of Sin
30. Go Fuck You
31. Hellbilly

Attention Deficit Domination [10:40-11:40]

32. Dopesmoker (Sleep cover) [played 10 minutes of it]
33. Holy Mountain (Sleep cover)
34. In the Camouflage
35. Make a Fall
36. Living Beyond Doom
37. Aman
38. Fighting the Devils Inside You (Earthride cover)
39. Bend
40. Goats "N" Heathens

3 Bar Ranch [11:40-12:20]

41. Now There's a Bull
42. 37 Heifers
43. Angus of Death
44. Cow Sold
45. Countin' Cows
46. Longhorn
47. Y Bar Ranch
48. Lot 53
49. Cuttin' Hay
50. Branded
51. Square Bailor
52. Mad Cow
53. Black Cow

[HackedUpForBBQ]

WOW what an awesome set! I can't wait to see him again

[christopher]

Originally Posted by HackedUpForBBQ

WOW what an awesome set! I can't wait to see him again

Make sure you get there early when you see him again. There aren't any opening acts anymore.

[XDoomsayerX]

Holy tits! This sounds amazing! Long ass set, appreciation for the fans. Damn. Don't know who this artist is but damn fine review. Also "fans" who just go there and take pics are lame, cmon enjoy the show and go apeshit.haha Reminds me of a story my friend told me when he saw TBDM. Said some dude was in the front taking pics the whole time with his phone then Trevor(singer) got pissed and annoyed so he grabbed it and chucked it.

[Onioner]

Dude you are a champion if you actually jotted down the entire setlist over the three hours. This sounds like it was an awesome show, but I always find myself amused by the fact that Hank Williams' grandson plays metal haha.

[christopher]

Originally Posted by Onioner

Dude you are a champion if you actually jotted down the entire setlist over the three hours. This sounds like it was an awesome show, but I always find myself amused by the fact that Hank Williams' grandson plays metal haha.

Oh I didn't actually jot it down, I did it off of memory haha. Well the songs in the middle of the country set might be a bit out of order, but I just wrote down what I remember. He literally plays the same 3 Bar Ranch set at each show, so I just used an old set for that one. It was easy to remember the 5 Hellbilly songs and the ADD songs haha

[HugeRockStar]

God damn he plays everything! Hope he comes around here soon would love to see this tour

[christopher]

I wish he would bring Assjack back out. Instead of doing a 40 minutes 3 Bar Ranch set, he could do 40 minutes of Assjack. I think people would enjoy that a lot more. 3 Bar Ranch is awesome, but Assjack is better.

[christopher]

This is why Assjack should be brought back

[bigguytoo9]

WOW!!!! I mean, the guy did Sleep covers too... holy shit.