F— Hank Zamola! Hank Zamawhat?

Local H, the hard rock Chicago duo, is set to perform at 10 p.m. at Otto’s, 118 E. Lincoln Highway, this Saturday. The Weekender recently spoke with Scott Lucas, lead singer and guitarist of Local H, about rabble rousing, angry Backstreet Boys and the time he intentionally pissed off an irate man named Hank Zamola.

Weekender: Who am I talking to, Scott Lucas or Brian St. Clair?

Scott Lucas: Scott.

W: Any relation to George?

SL: Yeah…I wrote all those movies, he still owes me a lot of money. If I ever see him, I’m going to kick his a– or get someone to do to it. Even though I think I can kick his a–.

W: Your band name is Local H. Seriously now, what do you have against the letter I or G?

SL: Ha (laughs). I don’t think it sounds very good.

W: One of my reporters saw a Q101 show where apparently, during a rendition of “high-fiving mother f—–,” you let f— slip once in a song where it slips several times in several places. Q101 pulled the plug in the middle of your set, prompting a very angry and deserved Local H tirade.

SL: Oh yeah. I remember that. It was run by this d—head who runs Chicago special events. His name is Hank Zamola and he’s a f—— c—. We drove all night from, uh, where were we? We were somewhere out west. We drove all night for a show and this guy is in our face yelling at us, telling us we can’t say f—. We played another festival in the summer and it was great. But he got flak for underage drinking. He said, “If you say f—, if you pull any of that crap, we’re pulling the plug.” I said, “Did you tell any of the other bands not to say f—?” Because Phantom Planet was on stage and saying it. I got up there (onstage) and said “We’re not supposed to say f— so what the f— are we going to do?” And this guy is losing his mind. I was like f— it, let’s let the crowd sing [“high-fiving motherf—–.”] And the crowd was singing it. Basically, everyone came to see us say f—. No one was offended. They paid us to say f—. That proved too much for him to take. He kicks the sound man out of the booth, physically removes him and shuts us off. The sound guy comes onstage, turns around our monitors. I start yelling [Hank Zamola’s] cell phone number out.

W: I heard that you climbed the rafters or something.

SL: I don’t remember. I was in such a rage, I wanted to kill this guy. Whatever. It’s not like there were toddlers there. It was in Wicker Park. People who live there are a bunch of art f—s. It just sucks.

W: You encouraged fans to boycott the station, and then you or your then drummer climbed a rafter… Is this a myth? I saw a member of Rage Against The Machine attempt something similar at the MTV Video Music Awards. Rage Against The Machine lost to Limp Bizkit and one of the members climbed the tower MTV had assembled for the show. Did you sue him for slander?

SL: Ha. No. We got paid.

W: Any advice for young rabble rousers looking to damn the man?

SL: It’s just what I see going on is rock bands not acting very rock’n’roll. These things are becoming more and more corporate. What shocks me is that this isn’t the only time this has happened. Every time we act like a rock band, they get pissed at us.

W: You see a lot of the same stuff in the “punk” scene.

SL: Yeah, that stuff has about as much edge as Barney. Of all the things on the radio, the things that hurt the most are the Backstreet Boys with tattoos. All these bands with stupid tattoos and eyeliner use a pitch correcter [in the studio] that makes them sound like a synthesizer so they all sound the same.

W: On a sandwich: Malaise or Mayonnaise?

SL: *laughs.* Mustardaise.

W: Detractors of Local H have said. “Ha! Nirvana cover band!” To them you say:

SL: We did a lot of bands. I think that thing kind of died out along time ago. When Aerosmith started, they were slagged as Stones wannabes. It should be obvious to anyone with ears that Aerosmith doesn’t sounds like the Stones.

W: Of all the tons of places you’ve played, where does NIU stand? Is it the 500,000th best place or the 499,999th best place?

SL: We’ve had some good shows there.

W: What makes a good show?

SL: When something happens that you can’t predict. Too often things go by the numbers. It’s fun when something breaks down.