Rockabilly cats bring the Whammy! down on Casbah

In the beginning of MTV it seemed that any band with a video got airplay, then "genres" caught on. One of those was the rockabilly revival spearheaded by three main "Cat” bands; the Stray Cats, the Polecats, and the Rockats. Jump 30 years ahead — MTV basically doesn't exist and most of those early bands and genres have come and gone, except rockabilly, which has endured the decades.

Two cats from those three old Cat bands — Tim Polecat (the Polecats) and Slim Jim Phantom (the Stray Cats) have paired off into the Whammy! Having no original music of their own, The Whammy cats did what they do best at Casbah, play good old-fashioned rockabilly.

The trio blazed through 15 songs that have been covered by several bands over the decades. But, when you get to see a band do a practically impromptu set list, playing songs the whole audience knows and loves, and pull those songs off without a hitch — that’s rock and roll at its best!

They played hits from the Sun Record catalog and favorites by the likes of Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent. During the encore, Slim Jim took over the vocals for Stray Cats hit “Rock This Town.” Tim Polecat finished off the night with what has become his signature song, the Polecats’ “Rockabilly Guy.”

• Concert: The Whammy!
• Date: December 7
• Venue: Casbah
• Seats: general