Hillstomp | 06.07.08 | Oregon
By Team JamBase Jun 18, 2008 • 10:00 am PDT

Hillstomp :: 06.07.08 :: Domino Room :: Bend, OR
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#102: Repair and maintain your drum kit and microphone stand.
As Johnson prepared for the duo’s Saturday night show at the Domino Room, he sat at the front of the stage peeling strips of tape from a roll that has clearly seen some use, and speedily applied first aid to his drum set – a mix-and-match assortment of plastic buckets and can lids coupled with some actual drums and cymbals tossed in for good measure, all caked in layers of weathered Duct Tape.
But minutes later, Johnson was back on stage with the other half of Hillstomp, guitarist-vocalist Henry Kammerer, and didn’t waste but a few seconds thumping his kick drum and pounding his buckets as Kammerer unleashed his howling slide guitar, setting a now crowded dance floor in motion. Only three cuts into the set, the band paid homage to one of its most obvious influences by launching into a raucous take on R.L. Burnside’s “Poor Black Mattie.” Kammerer’s guitar sang in the North Mississippi blues vein that Burnside helped cultivate, but Johnson’s down-and-dirty drumming gave the duo a punk rock attitude that brought another level of energy to an already energetic style of the blues.
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While the duo isn’t afraid to liberally pepper their setlist with covers of traditional blues numbers, as they did here, they do have a collection of originals including “Lucy’s Lament,” a thundering call-and-response rocker that featured both Kammerer and Johnson singing into Duct Tape laden microphones that appeared more appropriate for the P.A. system at a circa 1978 roller rink than as the mouth pieces for one of Oregon’s more talked-about acts. The bedraggled mics, although inarguably cool looking, aren’t just for show. What resulted were vocals that sometimes sounded as distorted as a conversation at a fast food drive thru, fitting perfectly with the junkyard finds of Johnson’s drum set up.
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Stopping only for brief moments to thank the crowd, the duo thundered on, never letting much steam out of their well-crafted machine. Kammerer, although seated for the entire show in true bluesman fashion, never quite sat still, whipping his head to the point that the bandana he had knotted around his forehead did little to maintain his ragged blond locks. Johnson’s enthusiasm didn’t wane at any point either as he rocked back and forth on his stool, twice sending his presumably necessary thick-rimmed glasses wayward along with his not-as-necessary baseball cap.
Leaving the stage to a frenzied response, Johnson and Kammerer returned for an encore that fittingly began with another Burnside favorite, “Shake ‘Em On Down.” The song is also familiar on North Mississippi Allstars‘ setlists, which is where much of the younger side of the audience had likely heard it before. And this begs one to wonder if the Dickinson brothers might sound a bit like Hillstomp if they’d have grown up in the Pacific Northwest and had an affinity for Duct Tape.
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