Live Review: Butthole Surfers

It's been a long three years since that demented psycho-post-punk Texas outfit, the Butthole Surfers, released their major label debut Independent Worm Saloon. Singer Gibby Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary have come up with a worthy successor in their new release, Electric Larryland. Not as long or as expansive as Worm, Larryland nevertheless spans several genres of recent popular music, uniting throbbing techno-rap ("Pepper"), post-Nirvana melodicism (the "Come as You Are" stylings of "Jingle of a Dog's Collar") and twisted pyschedelica ("My Brother's Wife" "Space") in inimitable Buttholes' style. The Surfers are like a great big musical meat-grinder…no matter what influences go in the top, it all comes out the side as a tasty burger (rare of course!).

And no matter how sporadic their recording career becomes, the Buttholes' live show has its own peculiar brand of continuity, from the blinding strobes and colored lights to the obscure films projected in a dizzying mosaic on the screen behind them, the visuals nearly matching the intensity of their live sound. Three years off the road have not dulled the sharp live edge of the Buttholes, as they proved at their recent stop on the remote Kitsap peninsula in western Washington. Having lost long-time bass player Jeff Pinkus, the Buttholes decided to not only hire a touring bass player (ex-Cherubs bassist Owen McMahon), but have also supplemented their live lineup with touring Meat Puppet Kyle Ellison on guitar (freeing up Gibby, who has added occasional guitar in the live shows since the band's inception in San Antonio in the early '80s). This five piece attack lent serious heft to the band's rendering of much of the new record (in fact, the live show tracked through the first half of the CD in near-perfect sequence, something so un-Butthole-ish that it actually came off as risky and experimental rather than a blatant promotion of recent product).

Once the onslaught of new tunes abated (and onslaught it was…from the opening blast of "Birds" through the techno click-track lunacy of "Pepper" and the "Hungry Heart" spoof of "TV Star"), the Texas boys kicked into some serious back catalogue fun, including "1401 (The Colored FBI Guy)" (from 1989's Widowermaker! EP) to the rarely played throb of "Cherub" (from the Buthholes' first full-length recording, 1984's Psychic…Powerless…Another Man's Sac). And Gibby, for the first time in a decade, has included some sax playing on this tour, to the tune of none other than the early classic "Cowboy Bob," replete with Gibby's patented I'm-in-desperate-pain vocal approach complementing his Ornette-Coleman-on-acid sax lines. Other highlights included the country twang of "I Saw An X-Ray"; the Dead-meets-Black-Flag jamming of "Space"; the unavoidable chaos of Paul's screaming vocals on "The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave" (the hardcore masterpiece that started the Butthole's career back in 1982); and the post-punk crush of "Goofy's Concern." Of course, all (or most) of the tunes were linked by Gibby's lengthy vocal delay tomfoolery (Gibby has raised the vocal delay function to an art form over the years) and highlighted visually by a wall of white strobes, gorgeous washes of colored light, and mind-numbing films of frogs, divers, roller-coasters, and undefinable shapes. Through it all, long time drummer King (complete with shaved head and sunglasses, a rock version of Woody Harrelson's Natural Born Killers character) kept impeccable time and grinned demonically, as only a Butthole Surfer can. Sure, the band has omitted Gibby's once-ubiquitous onstage fire antics (wherein the Gibster lights a cymbal on fire and hits it, sending flames perilously close to the flammable ceiling of your favorite local club), but this in no way reflects a kinder, gentler Butthole Surfers…these guys are still seriously deranged.

And what Buttholes review would be complete without genuflecting before the guitar god that is Paul Leary? Even with a cast on his right wrist, Paul coaxed the wild, demented lead lines from his axe as if his life depended on it. Whether huddled over his amp, savoring the feedback ("Cherub"), playing breathlessly pretty melodies ("TV Star" "Jingle of a Dog's Collar" "Hey") or full-out thrash-punk assault ("The Shah" "Goofy's Concern" "Ulcer Breakout"), Leary proved once again that he is not only one of the best post-punk guitarists in America, but one of the most unique and influential as well. A cross between Snakefinger, Mark Farner and Kirk Kirkwood, Leary continues to drive the musical engine that is the Butthole Surfers. Long may they careen out of control, at a club or gymnasium near you….

SETLIST:

Cough Syrup
Thermador->
Pepper
Ulcer Breakout->
Jingle of a Dog's Collar
TV Star
Ah Ha
Cherub
Cowboy Bob
I Saw an X-Ray
No Problem
Hey->
Space->
L.A.->
The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave