Raging Slab’s Def American debut, Dynamite Monster Boogie Concert, is rife with fragments of the 70s: Lynyrd Skynyrd’s southern blues boogie, Blue Oyster Cult’s heavy rock hooks, Grand Funk Railroad’s braggadocio, ZZ Top’s riff-drenched electric blues, Bad Company’s pure hard rock. But Raging Slab doesn’t just gorge on the past and spit it back out. They extract a wealth of hooks from these various bands, then punch them into a harder, meaner rock hybrid, injecting it with a shot of serious funk. A heavy-metal muscle flexes through the whole shebang.
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Three guitars generally provide more power than most bands can handle. Not so with Raging Slab. Singer-guitarist Greg Strzempka holds down the rhythm fort while slide guitarist Elyse Steinman lays down scorching bottleneck washes over it; that leaves lead guitarist Mark Middleton to bend and drill his strings where he will, and he usually points toward the Allman Brothers’ deft blues stylings, updating them with a rougher rock intensity.
The slower tunes reveal the true breadth of Raging Slab’s talent. Strzempka isn’t afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve, so there’s no smirking when the band brings in a string section for the heartbreaking “Lynne.” You can’t heap enough praise on “So Help Me,” one of the finest contemporary country songs around. This passionate jaunt back to Gram Parsons territory proves the band has a rich field to mine long after its head-bangin’ days are over.
Steinman’s truly unique guitar is shaped like the USA, complete with cutouts of the Great Lakes. Although her slide playing sometimes got lost in the guitar onslaught, she’s still one of the select few since Keith Richards who can credibly dangle a cigarette in her mouth while playing. Strzempka was the main man though, a shirtless guy in a Jesus beard and love beads sweating and shouting at his mike. He seemed driven to bring the monster boogie concert back to the people, intent on putting all those 70s fragments back together in one dynamite package.
