Detroit Cobras w/The Grayces & Thelma and the Sleaze: at Exit/In (Nashville, TN) Thu. April 18, 2013

Detroit Cobras w/The Grayces & Thelma and the Sleaze

Nashville Scene Critic's Pick …

“I don’t particularly think that I’m such a fucking genius that I’m going to be able to tell the world something they don’t already know,” Detroit Cobras frontwoman Rachel Nagy told PopMatters in 2007. “I just like to go back and acknowledge that it’s already been done, and done much better, and have fun with that.” And indeed, Detroit’s most badass cover band has fun with their material, dipping into R&B, soul and blues cuts by the likes of The 5 Royales, Irma Thomas, Percy Sledge and countless more. Except, of course, for their lone original, “Hot Dog (Watch Me Eat)” — a properly double-entendre-riddled rock ’n’ roll blast about choking down wieners (wink), penned for 2005’s Baby with garage-rock guru and sometime Cobras guitarist/producer Greg Cartwright (of The Oblivians, Reigning Sound, Compulsive Gamblers and semi-locals The Parting Gifts, among others). With Nagy at the helm — a true ass-stomping, no-shit-taking rock-chick type, believe you me — the Cobras aren’t the sorts to phone it in. Locals Thelma and the Sleaze and The Grayces appear in support.

—D. PATRICK RODGERS