Sometimes, you find yourself scrolling through YouTube in a malaise. Recycled content everywhere. AI influencers and ads are becoming increasingly difficult to avoid or even catch. Political discord and endless arguing and finger-pointing. The end of the world is right around the corner, according to some. Then, out of nowhere, you come across a video that makes you say “What in the world?” to yourself in a good way.
That was exactly my experience today. After slogging through recycled content, I stumbled upon a video of some country fellas, shirtless in overalls, playing a bluegrass version of ACDC’s “Thunderstruck.” Truly a WTF moment for me. Once I processed what was happening and the song started, I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.
Relatedly, I discussed the song’s history in another article, where I mentioned ACDC’s performance of it a few years back and its significance to the band’s career. Let’s see what’s going on with this Steve’n’Seagulls fella, though. From the looks of these boys, you’d think they’d spent their lives in the back woods, somewhere deep in the Appalachias, but a book can’t always be judged by its cover. These guys are Finnish, which I suppose explains all of the blond hair.
They made their mark with this video a little over ten years ago and are known for their fun country covers of popular songs like the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” and Iron Maiden’s “Ace’s High.” Their YouTube channel features numerous covers of classic rock and heavy metal songs, which I highly recommend spending an afternoon browsing and throwing into a little backyard BBQ playlist.
In this, their most popular video, we have a fella driving up to a group of musicians on a ride-on lawnmower, his arm propped up lazily on an accordion. There’s a banjo player, a man standing in front of a small set of drums holding a pair of spoons, a standard bass player, and a man standing in front of an anvil holding a mandolin.
The banjo player takes that famous fluttering intro guitar line from Angus Young, picking it fast as hell. The spoons are keeping time, of course, and we get ready for wherever the hell this ride is going to take us. Once that rhythm section launches into that steady bass and kick drum drive, I’m hooked. Every time they get to the end of a line in the verse and call out “Thunder!” together, the front man hits the anvil in time with a wrench, because of course he does. Why else would it be there?
The performance really hits its stride in the second verse when everyone chimes in to sing the lines together in harmony. While this all has an air of cheekiness, it’s actually quite good. The song itself, though legendary, is corny as hell at this point, so this rendition dancing on the edge of silly is fitting. They’re obviously well-practiced and talented musicians and singers. Their playing is blemish-free, and their voices sound really warm and wonderful together. If you listen real close, you can hear those Finnish accents at the corners of their words. It’s cute and fun.
My head is nodding and my foot is jumping through the entire song, especially for that breakdown and second chorus, where everyone is playing in full force. They’re rockin’ the damn thing, and I’m wishing they were out here so I could see them do it in person, but at least we have these videos to fall back on.
Despite the song’s repetitive nature, they keep things fresh with flourishes from each band member and some borderline out-of-place jam sections thrown in for good measure. The approach lands in the same universe as Weird Al Yankovic: silly, but well done and one hell of a good time, with some rippin’ accordion lines sprinkled in. If you’re on the fence, I’d highly suggest checking out at least the two songs I mentioned above. They also do a version of Metallica’s “Seek and Destroy” that’s so fast and thrashing, it’s really funny. You won’t be disappointed if you take a little time to peruse their channel.