Given how much fun the band has on stage, it's easy to forget that they, too, are grown-up married men. At one point, on the verge of launching into "Retarded Bill" from their debut Sub Pop CD The Smoke of Hell, they ended up cracking up because they couldn't remember how it went. "Give us a break," Eddie told the audience, "this song is twelve years old." Most of the audience probably hadn't had their first beer when the Supersuckers wrote the song, which they quickly remembered and peeled out on.

Are the Supersuckers the greatest rock-and-roll band in history, as proclaimed by the title of their recent greatest-hits CD? From the evidence of their recorded songs, I'd say maybe so, but whenever I see them live they put me over the top. By all means, buy their CDs, and try and figure out how any band can do so much with what would appear to be such slim material: songs about slacking out ("On the Couch"), random violence ("How to Maximize Your Kill Count") and getting stoned ("High Ya," "Ron's Got the Cocaine," and my favorite, "I Want the Drugs") that end up wedged in your brain, egging on the inner headbanger that you don't even think exists. But much more importantly, see them live. They are on a North American tour, and this is your chance to help keep rock evil and have an unbelievably good time to boot.