Hi. The Daily Show doesnât work in the UK by the looks of it. Good story about dropping acid and going naked though. Yikes!
Autoplay, whyâŚ
I was at that show too, Xeni. Rockitz!! Wild indeed --after the most intensely visceral show imaginable, they ended it with an insanely accurate note-for-note cover of REMâs âThis One Goes Out To the One I Loveâ, which was much-hated top 40 tripe at that time. Priceless!
As the Butthole Surfers were breaking down their gear I recall a very excited Dave Brockie scampering onto the stage to tell Gibby about his new band called GWAR that were going to take over the world⌠and then they did.
Acid, nudity and public are rarely good combinations. I spent a Christmas day in the early 90s on an Air France flight tripping balls in a barely passable pair of boxer shorts and a t-shirt, trying to figure out why I couldnât understand what Tommy Lee Jones was saying on the movie screen (it was dubbed in French). There were 3 of us on the plane - no way could 3 scraggly people in their underwear get on a jumbo jet now.
The Butthole Surfers and, to a slightly lesser extent the Dead Kennedies got me through my first couple of seasons of treeplanting in Northern BC.
Look mommy, Iâm a surfer!
Awww, man, I never got to see the Buttholes (thanks, Northern England!). Did get to see GWAR and other luminaries of the era at the Riverside and a few other venues here though. They remain one of my favourite bands of all time, however (honorable 90s mention to the God Bullies, as well. Another missâŚ)
Proof that we now live in a crappier world.
Iâm very proud to say Iâve seen The Butthole Surfers around 25 times, often with a snuck in tape deck. They were the one band my friends all agreed on in the 80s and 90s. So many incredible moments. I also got to meet and even party with them a few times. To us it was comparable to hanging out with Hendrix or Zeppelin. I still believe Paul Leary is a severely underrated/overlooked guitarist. Gibby has mellowed a lot over the years, but heâs alive and coherent, which is pretty damn admirable.
Weird, one of the first people I thought of after I found out about Brockie was Gibby. I thought about how people are going to start dying and tried to muster how Iâd take losing Gibby.
But, yep, I guess itâs getting to be that âspecial timeâ for 80âs/90âs alt music people to start dying.
I remember when my parents were getting to be around middle aged, thatâs when I kept hearing the âoh no, she/he was so youngâ, etc. talk around the dinner table. I was puzzled why they thought these other middle-aged dinosaurs were âso youngâ. It was sad, but the death of people that âoldâ made sense to me at the time, I guess.
Then again, Dave Brockie lived most of his 50 years in GWAR years. So he probably lived to be 500 years old in GWAR years. Pretty nice run, considering.
If it was drugs that did Dave in, if it was⌠then hopefully Brockie will serve as a warning to others around his age to lay off the heavy stuff if youâve got any big plans in the near future. You may not be as rock solid healthy as you may think once youâre over 40-50. Hopefully, others will stick around a bit longer by heeding that fact.
The Buttholes are responsible for the greatest near-spoonerism in rock history, Hairway To Steven.
Then there was an album cover, Butthole Surfers âCream Cornâ, the words placed in such a way that I read it as Butthole Cream, âCorn Surfersâ⌠found it, itâs Cream Butthole.
They were all in love with dying
they were drinking from a fountain
that was pouring like an avalanche
coming down the mountain
I remember them nearly provoking a riot at the Whiskey while opening for a surprise show by X. All these record execs there. It was, um, weird. Probably not a good career move. Hung out with him beforehand out front and then we snuck some homeless kid inside who didnât have money to get in.
Gotta say: Everyone in X was absolutely stellar, wonderful people. Even when surrounded by weirdness and creepy/professional crowds.
The scene was small I guess but we had nothing to compare it to so it seemed all right to us. We had vibrant art, good acid, great music, both homegrown, and as a regular stop on the tour spiel that Black Flag paved, fine bands from all over. There were some amazing shows. When we get together in our parlors and reminisce, to a man thereâll be agreement that the Butthole Surfers show at PB Kellys in Shockoe Bottom was the most. The acid was it and the twin drumming was mesmerizing. The lack of a stage allowed us to push forward into the band in some weird wave. Gibby with his megaphone just kept singing.
There was something about the scene. We often went to DC to see bands, sometimes we went to Charlottesville. There the bands were not as good. The 930 Club was a terrible place. People just stood there eyeballing the bands. In Richmond it was interactive. The crowd was better and the bands played better.
Itâs funny, I never thought much of it before, we adopted a couple of street kids. John was one kid who ran away from VA Beach and hung out with Black Pyramid. We always teased him that we saw his picture on a milk carton. Another kid followed us around like a puppy. For the life of me I canât remember his name. Then there were the locals, not college students or runaways, but free ranging teens that would show up at Shafer Court, parties, Girlville, and our flat on Monument. Stacey was one of those. She just appeared one day still in braces. I didnât think so before because of the age difference but Iâm convinced now Xeni that you and I were at the same places at the same time even though weâve never met.
My FB feed is filled with tagged photos of Brockie. I noticed that heâs smiling in every one. A big shit-eating grin. I think thatâs a pretty good legacy and thatâs how I remember him.
Did Gibby talk about the time he filed a copyright lawsuit against Touch and Go Records and essentially drove them out of business?
Punk as fuck, huh?
To this day, X is one of the top 5 bands I have ever seen live, out of many, many hundreds of shows/concerts.
I remember one time they opened for David Bowie at Spartan Stadium, San Jose, CA when Bowie was on the Glass Spider tour. His show was alright. X killed.
Frampton played guitar with Bowie, though, that was cool⌠
That photo you have of them from the mid-1980s is by Pat Blashill, who has a truly excellent collection of photos from the Austin punk scene.
I saw them many times back then as a teenager, including one really crazy party out in the woods that my precocious high school friend bass playerâs band opened for. The Dec '87 show at the Ritz completely and totally blew my little mind.
It was like that only louder and weirder and then even more loud and more weird. Circa '87 at a Houston warehouse/club. The start of the main event and strobe lights go on, very slowly and getting faster. A big, thug-looking punk in front of us just falls onto the floor like a marionette whose strings had been cut. We help him out, he says strobe lights do that to him and carries on as if nothing happened.
I think my ears are still ringing from that show. Or maybe the other half dozen times I managed to catch them live.
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