Here is what you need to know about Rec Room before Thursday night: it is a 300-person bar on W Chippewa Street in downtown Buffalo, the kind of room where the stage is close enough that you will feel every note and the crowd has nowhere to go but all-in. On May 21, that room belongs to Southern Culture on the Skids — and Rolling Stone already summed up what that means: “a hell raising rock and roll party.”
The Chapel Hill trio has been at this since 1983. Rick Miller plays guitar and sings, Mary Huff plays bass and sings, Dave Hartman holds it down on drums — and the three of them have been playing together since 1988. That kind of run shows. SCOTS is what Miller calls “wobbly Americana”: rockabilly and surf and country and R&B and garage rock, all tangled up together, nothing too precious, everything designed to move people. Their 1994 album Ditch Diggin’ and the track “Voodoo Cadillac” broke them wide, but the catalog runs deep and the live show has always been the real thing. They have played The Tonight Show and Conan O’Brien, shared stages with Link Wray and Patti Smith, and performed internationally including at Mt. Fuji in Japan. In 2014, the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC Chapel Hill honored the band with a dedicated exhibition — which tells you something about how seriously people take music that refuses to take itself too seriously.
Opening the night is The Get Down, an instrumental rock band with matching Fender instruments and a sound rooted in surf, blues, and classic TV and film themes — channeling the spirit of Dick Dale and The Ventures. They have shared bills with NRBQ and Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, and they are exactly the kind of opener that makes you glad you showed up at doors.
The show is presented by After Dark Presents. Doors: 7:00 PM. Show: 8:00 PM. Age restriction: 16-plus with ID; under 16 admitted with a parent or legal guardian; no one under 12. Tickets are digital and delivered two days before the event. Rec Room is at 79 W Chippewa Street in downtown Buffalo.