That Giant Sucking Sound

The Tucson-bred, Seattle-warped Supersuckers mean different things to different people. They reeked of early '90s Seattle on The Smoke of Hell, a cow punk-ish Sub Pop album featuring cover art by Eightball cartoonist Daniel Clowes and an anthemic little slide-guitar number called "Hell City Hell," in which singer Eddie Spaghetti rhymed "marijuana" with "Lola Falana." They've been called rock 'n' roll jokesters for releasing "Hell City Hell" as a 7-inch with a cover of Ice Cube's "Dead Homiez" on the flip side, or tacking a riff from "Crazy Train" onto the end of an Ozzy homage, a stunt they would have gotten away with too, if the metal guru hadn't nixed Sub Pop's permission request. They've come off like big dumb grinning '70s arena rock played at early '80s punk speed, and the temporary addition of Didjits guitarist Rick Sims to their album Sacrilicious only intensified the band's searing grease-and-grit intensity. Then they performed at Farm Aid with Willie Nelson, whose sister Bobbie played keyboards on the group's "Don't Go Blue." The search for the real Supersuckers continues; Slick 50 open the show Saturday at 9:30 p.m., followed by the Kirk St. James Band, featuring former members of Kansas outfit Tenderloin, at the Transmission Theater, 11th Street & Folsom, S.F. Admission is $10; call 861-6906.

-- Heather Wisner