Nickell’s Bag

Like a muscle-car chase scene from a grainy old B-movie, Hillstomp roars ever forward, swerving precariously at every bend in the road, dust and mud splattering the camera, pedal-to-the-metal all the way. Whether squealing their tires across the broken expanse of R.L. Burnside bridge, or tearing fresh tracks through the darkened woods, these nitrous-fueled ne’er-do-wells don’t know when to stop…and probably wouldn’t stop if they knew.

Dukes of Hazzard? Nah. These guys make those guys look positively lily-white. Banging on tin-cans and slashing at fuzzed-out guitars while crooning half-intelligibly, the two guys of Hillstomp don’t bother to wipe the grime off their glasses when they look at the world around them. In fact, sometimes it seems that all they see is grime.

Yet it’s all still in good fun. Hillstomp drummer John Johnson once told a reporter at Seattle’s The Stranger that, the way he sees it, “the blues isn’t really about being sad…It’s about using music as a celebration, to bring yourself up and out of something.”

That attitude comes through in the band’s music, which drones along at a knee-slapping, foot-stomping pace that’ll wash away any despondency about the downer subjects of the songs – the bad love and mean men and dark clouds that seem to abound. All that badness makes for a real good time.

It’s a good time that’s been shared with audiences across the country and, lately, even overseas. The Portland-based band – Henry Kammerer on guitar and vocals; John Johnson on drums, buckets, and other beaten objects – has played at festivals in Rome and London; and their most recent studio album, “The Woman That Ended the World,” was ranked among the top 50 albums of 2006 by Blues Matters, a UK-based magazine.

Perhaps more impressive is their impact on the home front. Willamette Week named that same record the best local album of the year, ahead of records by nationally known acts including the Decemberists and Sleater-Kinney.

The band recently released “After Two But Before Five,” a 12-track live album that proves the band is, if anything, even better in front of an audience. (Click here to hear a cover of R.L. Burnside’s “Goin’ Down South,” from the album.)

All of this makes the band’s stop at the Badlander a pretty good bet for a darn good show. They’ll appear there this Saturday, Jan. 26, along with Wolf Redboy and Dan Dubuque; there’s no cover for the 21-and-over show.

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