When the Butthole Surfers come to town it’s pretty safe to say that whatever goes down is going to be interesting. To me they are the soundtrack of your best dreams and your worst nightmares at the same time, the kings of disturbed punk, the very same Texan band that ate all the acid and made the most satanic noise than anyone else and yes, they are back!
It’s been 12 years since they graced these shores and I must admit that before this show I was dreading it, wondering if the good old days of the Surfers could be tarnished by a band that could have possibly mellowed on the other side of rehab. I mean how many of your favourite bands have you seen come back and nail it like the good old days?
This time round, Gibby Haynes and the full original 80’s line up picked a date at London’s Forum on one of the hottest days of the year recruiting a bunch of kids called The Paul Green School of Rock All-Stars on the way to assist them. Intrigue in this new addition to their set was rife before the show but this orchestra of youth delivered the goods throughout the evening reciting classic Buttholes tracks from the off.
“You are gonna make me cry so shut up!” …was Gibby’s reply to the wall of noise that hit them as they cranked out the throbbing baseline to ‘22 Going on 23‘ followed by the spastic tongue muck of ‘Fast Song‘ and then the speedy classic, ‘Suicide’. The band then flew to ‘Florida‘ for their annual space vacation and at this part of the show I realised the sound was shit but this venue has NEVER been famous for its PA’s even with its previous owners. Gibby’s vocal was far to laid back in the mix for me and it wasn’t earsplitting as i had hoped but as Haynes warped his voice through the vocoder and merged it into the rock riffs of ‘Some Dispute Over T-Shirt Sales‘ and the John Paul Jones produced ‘Goofy’s Concern‘ I started to not give a hoof about what it sounded like and headed for more beer.
Throughout the night, the rock school kids kept appearing onstage with different instruments, and credit to them as they turned up the heat making this show extremely interesting to watch which it made for a perfect comeback as the kids did rock!
Back in the day, these guys would show up, get wasted and not really know what was going on, although that is what made it attractive at the time. I wondered if that aspect of it would be missing and for sure it was, but as I had to explain to a friend, you can’t do acid all of your life, but you can for some of it. To this end whilst hearing the feedback jam to ‘Graveyard‘ and the lyrics to Electriclarrylands ‘Ulcer Breakout‘ I wished I was tripping my nuts off even if it was for the crowd value alone! Tonight the crowd is a mish mash of fuck ups like myself, football thugs, hc kids, skaters, goths, punks, crusties, office workers, mum’s dad’s, grannies even. This was a classic audience with probably the best people watching since Glastonbury.
‘These kids are bad ass..’ says Gibby ….’and now for something completely the same!’ What an intro for the musically wonderful ‘Rocky‘. I love these tracks, the light side of the Buttholes, the meaningful Cherokee Indian moments, the love, the beauty ….this setting sets a scene before they are are eaten alive by the sheer noise and Satanic prowess of the infamous ‘Sweat Loaf‘ and the weirdly wonderful ‘I Saw an X-ray of a Girl Passing Gas’. These are definite highlights alongside one of the best Surfer tracks of all time – ‘Jimi’. Very rarely does a sound scape leave me so floored but this tune is a rare treat and goes down like an atomic bomb with the audience, they are lapping it up.
2 of the rock orchestra’s kids get Happy Sweet 16th sung to them by 2000 people leaving room for only one more track. Paul Leary served up ‘The Shah Sleeps In Lee Harvey’s Grave’ and the place went nuts whilst the entire rock school hit the stage and jammed noise for 10 minutes.
Basically to sum up a great night, the Butthole Surfers redeemed themselves as the real deal. Gibby states he IS a vagina, the background video screen may not have penis operations but snoopy and porn is a great substitute. The original line up alongside Gibby was Paul Leary, Jeff Pinkus and the twin drummers King Coffey and Teresa Taylor and you can take it from me that they still rock despite the help of the kids. Lets’ hope it doesn’t take another 12 years for these guys to play the UK again, they were sorely missed.
Emilio Gomez
You can buy the full recording of this show direct from this link here ….it the best quality double CD set I own and definitely worth the money.
Forum Setlist
22 Going on 23
Fast Song
Suicide
Florida/100 Million
Some Dispute Over T-Shirt Sales
Goofy’s Concern
Two Parter/Tornadoes
1401
Graveyard
Dust Devil
Ulcer Breakout
Rocky
Cowboy Bob
Cherub
Sweat Loaf
I Saw an X-Ray of a Girl Passing Gas
Gary Floyd
Jimi/Cartoon
Happy Birthday (Mariella & Gianni)
The Shah Sleeps In Lee Harvey’s Grave