INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Roadhouse metal

Indy Metal Showcase with the Glasspack, Devil to Pay, Llange, Lamb’s Breath and more
Zanies Too
Saturday, May 5, 9 p.m. $7

It could easily be said the Glasspack’s music epitomizes the Louisville band’s Kentucky roots.

The trio’s fourth record, Dirty Women, is choking with scuttling, hirsute rawk, aged like a fire-breathing batch of moonshine. Lead Glasspacker “Dirty” Dave Johnson cites all the usual suspects in what shaped him as the profane musician he is today: Black Sabbath, the Stooges, MC5, with a little Black Flag and the Misfits thrown in for good measure.

“I just like fuzzy rock ’n’ roll,” he says.

That fuzz comes through in all manners on Dirty Women, from the ruckus punk of “Fire in the Trailer Park” to the corrupted soul of “Super Sport.” Fast becoming the highlight of the CD is the psychedelic-boogie “Louisiana Strawberry” that piles 11-and-a-half minutes of both raging and astral guitar solos.

“Everybody’s digging that one,” Johnson says. “On every Glasspack record, there’s at least one crazy-long song, usually toward the end — kind of like a story with music and words. [‘Louisiana Strawberry’ is] for the people who chose to remain in New Orleans, because they were born there and a flood isn’t going to drive them away. It’s a very positive song.”

The Pack, as fans call them, is good about including such transcendent jams in its set and making sure its shows are remembered in rock ’n’ roll lore.

“I used to think we needed to be the band that played behind the barbed wire, roadhouse-style,” Johnson says.