Don't fear the Greaser

Tag : diablo boots

By Tim Clodfelter | Journal Reporter
Published: July 3, 2008
Updated: 07/02/2008 08:35 pm
If you've never been to the Heavy Rebel Weekender, the rockabillyfestival held each summer in downtownWinston-Salem, you may imaginea sea of tattooed greasers and dolls, dressed in clothes straightout of the 1950s.
And there are plenty of those, but there are plenty of other lookson display at Heavy Rebel.
Punk rockers. Psychobillies (a cross between the rockabilly andpunk looks, often with piercings). Country and Western/honky-tonkfans, some with cowboy hats and others with trucker hats.Skateboard kids. Goth kids. People in their street clothes (thoughfor some, the other looks
are their street clothes).
There is no dress code, and there's a strong live-and-let-live vibeto the whole affair.
"For Heavy Rebel, pretty much anything goes," said Dennis "Deno"Shropshire, who sells vintage clothes and accessories at his Deno'sDuds booth each year at Heavy Rebel. "A lot of the other big showsthat have rockabilly themes to them, that have those '50s themes,especially in California, will stay very close to the originalvintage clothing. I've heard some folks from here go out to them… and some comments were made to them because the guys maynot have had on 1950s-authentic jeans. They take it veryseriously."
That seriousness, said Heavy Rebel co-founder Dave Quick, iscontrary to the rock 'n' roll spirit. "If you don't iron your pantcuffs right at three inches and have the hankie just so, it'salmost like a military uniform the way some people approach theiroutfits," he said. "And it flies in the face of the freedom of rock'n' roll, in my opinion.
"That's more of a West Coast deal, those people who are more intostyle than the music. That's where we draw the line.….Everybody likes to look cool according to their own ideas, butnobody enjoys getting treated like crap."
At Heavy Rebel, Quick said, you may see people in penny loafers,khaki pants and Izod shirts standing next to punk rockers, allenjoying the same music. "You can wear whatever the hell you want.It's all about the music."
The rockabilly "greaser and doll" look is a very common look at Heavy Rebel, though. For guys, thatgenerally means blue jeans and black T-shirts. "Buy you thedarkest, cheapest pair of jeans you can get, at Kmart or Wal-Mart,the kind that's stiff as a board," Shropshire recommended. "Cuffthose, and get a wallet chain, wear your white socks, then shoes.They're not too strict on the East Coast, Converse tennis shoes arefine. The T-shirt, it's got to be black, no light colors.
"And get your hair grease from me," he added with a laugh.
For women, he recommends looking for clothes at a vintage clothingstore or hitting the Internet for reproductions that will fit. Andthe tattoos? That's up to you.
Shropshire sells a mix of vintage clothes, work shirts and modernreproductions.
"What we've seen as the drawback to why people don't wear vintageis that people have changed since the 1950s," he said. "The ladiesof the '50s were very small. With most vintage clothes, the largestsize you can find is medium, and a medium won't fit a 13-year-oldboy now.
"Let's face it, we've grown bigger. We've grown taller. I only knowa few guys who are very slim, very narrow, who can wear the oldclothes. Most old clothes were thrown away." Vintage clothes in XLor larger, he said, can go for five to 10 times more on eBay thanvintage clothes that are in smaller sizes.
Shropshire came by his rockabilly look naturally, growing up in the1950s. His older brothers were into hot rods, and wore cuffedjeans, T-shirts with the sleeves rolled up so they could tuck intheir cigarettes, and greased hair.
"Down here in Burlington, I grease my hair up, I love to wear panelshirts, and some people will stare at me because I'm so out ofplace," he said. "Only when we get together am I kind of accepted.
"I'm 55 years old, and I've settled down some. My wife asked me acouple of days ago, when am I going to buy normal-looking clothes?"He has bought what he calls a "funeral suit," a sedate outfit hecan wear to funerals and church, but he prefers the more retrolook, including sharkskin suits.
Shropshire runs his business at various rockabilly and car shows aswell as online at www.denosduds.com , and he's gotten used to seeing a wide variety of styles at HeavyRebel. "One girl walks into my booth with her jeans cuffed and herhair in a 1950s hairdo," he says, "and the next one walks up in asundress with cherries on it, combat boots, leather wristbands withchrome spikes and dog collar. That's one thing you can say, younever know what they're going to look like here."
The schedule
Heavy Rebel runs Friday through Sunday at the Millennium Center,101 W. Fifth St. Tickets: $35 a day or $90 for a weekend pass.Advance passes are available at www.heavyrebel.net .
Performances take place on three stages, the ■ Main Stage,■the Underground and ■ the Jailhouse.
Friday
4:45 p.m. SouthPaw
5 p.m. Atomic Drops
5:30 p.m. Wink Keziah & Deluxe Motel
5:45 p.m. Blue Diablo
6 p.m. The Keepers
6:30 p.m. Pete Yorko
7 p.m. Drop Tops
7:30 p.m. Dead City Dealers
7:45 p.m. Kings of Hell
8 p.m. Gojira-X
8:30 p.m. Hick'ry Hawkins
8:45 p.m. Motorpsychos
9 p.m. Reverend D-Ray and the Shockers
9:30 p.m. Los Rudos
9:45 p.m. Blacklists Royals
10 p.m. the bo-stevens
10:30 p.m. Jimmy and the Teasers
10:45 p.m. Guitar Bomb
11 p.m. Crank County Daredevils
11:30 p.m. Lords of the Highway
Midnight Dexter Romweber and The New Romans
Saturday
9 a.m. to 4 p.m.: HRW Car and Bike Show, Mud Wrestling
5 p.m. High Rollers
5:30 p.m. Bad Mothers
5:45 p.m. Mean Mean Man/Brass Knuckle Band
6 p.m. Filthy Rotten Sex Machine
6:30 p.m. Soul Reapin' 3
6:45 p.m. American Speedway
7 p.m. Joecephus/George Jonestown Massacre
7:30 p.m. TBA
7:45 p.m. Luxury Pusher
8 p.m. Mad Tea Party
8:30 p.m. Big Spank
8:45 p.m. The Butchers
9 p.m. Wet Wifebeater Contest
9:30 p.m. Designer Drugs
9:45 p.m. The Cheats
10 p.m. Speed Crazy
10:30 p.m. Uncle Scratch's Gospel Revival
10:45 p.m. Sasquatch and the Sickabillies
11 p.m. Red Hot Poker Dots
Midnight Rocket 88
Sunday
2 p.m. Nanner Puddin' Eatin' and Beer Drinkin' Contest 2:30 p.m.The Black Knots
2:45 p.m. 220 Short
3 p.m. Adam the First Real Man
3:30 p.m. The Defilers
3:45 p.m. The Big Bad
4 p.m. Deadneks
4:30 p.m. The Flat Tires
4:45 p.m. TBA
5 p.m. Upright Bass Slapdown
5:30 p.m. Locke and Load
5:45 p.m. The Hottdamns
6 p.m. Crossroads Guitar Contest
6:30 p.m. Sandanistas
6:45 p.m. The Buzzards
7 p.m. Psycho Devilles
7:30 p.m. Matt Walsh
7:45 p.m. Lust
8 p.m. Killer Filler
8:30 p.m. The Straight 8's
8:45 p.m. Pee Wee Moore
9 p.m. Truckstop Preachers
9:30 p.m. BuzzKills
9:45 p.m. Billy Joe Winghead
10 p.m. 7 Shot Screamers