BUTTHOLE SURFERS – Live at CBGB, 1985
Never got into the Butthole Surfers stuff until recently. There was one album, “pioughd”, from the early ’90s which I liked very much in my youth, back when everything was about Pantera, Metallica and Rush — but now I understand that that album was unrepresentative of their overall sound before that.
I’d always pictured their sound as an unwieldly clanging racket — and was pleasantly surprised to find many shaded layers of blissful skronk waiting for me on their early discs. Their live show at the time, though, was indeed a racket, but a captivating one, rather than one that faded into a mere din.
Hate to sound like an old hippie, but you really did have to be there – the topless dancer painted green, strobelights aimed into the crowd, films projected behind them (sex-change surgery, “Un Chen Andalou,” episodes of “Charley’s Angel’s” projected upside down), lighting guitars on fire and destroying them – sometimes, all at once!
Their studio albums were quite different, and their mid-’80s output ranks with the best of the era. So thanks for this, will no doubt bring back hallucinatory ’80s youth memories.
Aaargh! Tagless!
I mean, Yay! A project!
Thanks again!
i enjoyed that pioughd album as well…there is an element of the sublime in the record(strange word to use to refer the butthole surfers) that one could argue best represents the aesthetics (though maybe not the sound) of the band….but i’m probably just reading too much into it.
also:
i loved my brown reason to live record but i admit i wore the shit out of the industrial grunge Locust Abortion Technician tape!
thanks for the post!
They converted me to a full-fledged weirdo in the mid-80s’. It was full-on DADA assault to see their over-the-top stage show, playing warped lugubrious sludge rock for a crowd of mohawked-cookie-cutter punks thrashing away in the pit oblivious to the fact that the furious moshing didn’t really jibe with the slow psychedelic noise rock. I mean, does anything from “Rembrandt Pussyhorse” sound remotely “punk rock”?
I think after “Locust Abortion” they went downhill, with their albums missing an edge and sounding weirdly slick.
when the Butthole Surfers play the Larry Sanders show…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UlFWNkppxI
i like the post-performance exchange with the band.
The date for this might be June 8,1985 CBGB. I have a 2nd gen cassette of this that has made the trading circles. If this is this show,it has a rare live version of Sea Ferring ,which they didnt play very often. 2 sets too. 79minutes
You should check out their 1982 demo album! The song “Hey” is what made me realize I liked them.