Ghoultown Review

Gothabilly – Johnny Cash, cranked up with vicious driving rhythms fueled by tequila, gunsmoke, grit and a line of pissed off zombies. Imagine having that shot of 150% proof raw tequila chased down with habeneros grown on the barren plains of Hell before riding out on a Texas-sized lynch mob straight from a horror-styled spaghetti western - that would be a close approximation to the attitude and performance of Ghoultown.  

Photo by Dean Ansley

Ghoultown, composed of Count Lyle (vocals, guitar), Jake Middlefinger (lead guitar), Queeno (bass), Lizard Lazario (acoustic guitar), Icarus (trumpet), X-Ray Charles (drums) along with Anna Oakley and Sandy the Tee-Shirt Temptress (style, attitude and visuals), played on Friday night to a moderately appreciative crowd. They started out with a bang and kept giving the audience a good show.

In the first third of the show, they played a number of songs that sounded rather similar – a solid country-western rockabilly beat that began to blend together. The rest of the songs stood out, brought to life through the members getting into the show when a small mosh pit formed of inspired fans. Between Count Lyle’s pure rockabilly attitude, the firey trumpet playing of Icarus, and the rest of the band ripping the songs screaming from the cold chest of a long-hanging corpse and bringing it back to life, they showed the range and various influences of gothabilly.

The group is soon expecting a comic book based upon them to be released from Bad Moon Studios, which might be a good read (the band being inspired by the horror-western comic Jonah Hex always helps in the possibilities of the storyline). Bad Moon Studios have a booth in the Comic Artists area in the Marriott Marquis where they have an eight page preview comic of Ghoultown. As for their music and merchandise, check out their table on the Ballroom level.

If you like the sound of rockabilly with a liberal taste of  Texas twang and graveyard dust as a soundtrack for the vampire movie Near Dark, then stop by their table and ask them to play some of their tracks for you. You won’t be disappointed.

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