The Spin: Jason and the Scorchers at Mercy Lounge

Jason Ringenberg and Warner Hodges are a Red Bull-fueled wonder to behold. They were the only two of the four original Scorchers up for thrashing and grinning their way through an hour-and-45-minute set (not including the encore) at the Mercy Lounge a few hours after getting their Americana lifetime achievement award at the Ryman.

We definitely picked up on the fact that they were announced as the Nashville Scorchers, just like back in the day. They were hell-bent on making it worth that 20 or 35 bucks—depending on whether you sprang for the nightly cover or the festival bracelet. And based on age and ability to recollect song lyrics, we’d guess that most people in the packed house—especially the sweaty, jumping throng right up by the stage—weren’t exactly Scorchers virgins.

The show was one part Behind the Music and two parts firecracker. (Ringenberg rehashed such highlights as being dissed by Ralph Emory.) The fact that Perry Baggs was contributing harmonies and air drumming, and not actually behind the drum kit, and Jeff Johnson was mostly sitting it out—except for jumping on stage to play acoustic guitar on a song—reminded us what a fragile, fleeting miracle a really, really damn good band is.

They figured out small details like a setlist, key changes, chords and lyrics on the fly. But that just added to living-on-the-edge feel of the night. Hell, we don’t even know when and if they’ll ever do this again.

The band—rounded out by Al Collins on bass, we-didn’t-catch-who on drums and a few other guests—blazed through their cowpunk, rockabilly and honky-tonk-ish songs with, it seemed to us, all the energy in the world. The Mercy Lounge stage was barely big enough. Halfway through the first song Hodges was already slinging his guitar around, and Ringenberg was spinning and chicken-strutting. “Absolutely Sweet Marie” sounded even faster than it used to, and Ringenberg forgot part of the lyrics to the bridge. Wearing a fringe shirt, just like in the old days, he proclaimed, “We still rock as hard as ever—it just takes a little longer to recover.” We can’t vouch for the second part of that statement, but the first part’s definitely true.

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