Butthole Surfers in Brooklyn last night
 

Entire original lineup. They had two films overlapping each other at once, strobe lights and smoke. They played pretty much nothing but 80's material, their encore was Bong Song. Gibby was shredding giant stuffed animals and at one point Paul had two guitars on.

Oh yeah, and they had the worst opening acts EVER

A few pictures

And the setlist:

22 Going on 23
100 Million People Dead
Fast Song
Florida
Creep In The Cellar
Suicide
Rocky
Pittsburgh To Lebanon
Bar-B-Q Pope
Cowboy Bob
The Colored FBI Guy
E.D.G.A.R.
Negro Observer
Bong Song
Hey
X-Ray
Goofy's Concern
Graveyard
some dispute over t-shirt sales
To Parter
Tornadoes
Gary Floyd

Blind Man
The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave

Was it that School of Rock thing that opened? A bunch of kids covering Sabbath/Maiden/Black Flag, etc? If so, that would indeed go down as one of the worst opening acts in history.

I thought the Butthole Surfers were awful too, mind, but I've never been much of a fan.

No, it was some drama student guy reading poetry, and the Black Dice. I appreciated the black dice for keeping things interesting, but the most I could take of that nonsense is 10 to 15 mins tops. Not 50 solid minutes of acid eating acid pure noises with no real rhythm or melody. It's the same reason I don't like people like Merzbow. How can you actually listen to a CD of that and enjoy it?

If I'd still lived in NYC I'd have been there. Love the Butthole's !!

Nice pics there...So that School of Rock thing sucked ? I saw a documentary a few years ago on one of the classes and they were great ... they did Zappa and that's not easy to play...they did it well.

2 of the graduates of that documentary are now with Adrian Belew in his band and they're fucking fantastic. I just saw them this past summer, they're brother and sister (drum and bassist) and they know their chops...

the school of rock was pretty good when they opened for BHS at webster hall this summer. Yea they definately know their chops. I was especially impressed by the bassist. They also contributed to the Surfers lineup for a few songs on the show which I wasn't particularly fond of, but I was glad to see them play totally by themselves in Brooklyn on Friday night

I know your intention isn't to say Black Dice sounds like Merzbow, but really I wouldn't mention the two in the same breath. Merzbow has a lot of interesting and amazing textures... really powerful, insane, overwhelming noise... Black Dice is kind of a weird dancy skittering electronic noise thing that isn't really my thing either. Definitely wouldn't want to see that shit live, I've seen enough people turning knobs and pressing keys on a synth for one lifetime.

But yeah, a whole CD of Merzbow is usually pretty damn awesome....

You saw SoR or the BHS by themselves ?

Whether or not one is impressed by the SoR players in concert, that documentary is really good. I think Jack Black's 'ROCK SCHOOL' is loosely based on it, but SoR is the real deal. I think they took 8-17 year old kids, some dude in Philly does it.

The black dice are in no way "dancy". It is random electronically triggered noises for 50 minutes. No rhythm whatsoever. Trust me I just saw them live the other night.

As for Merzbow, that's just my opinion. I've listened to Merzbow and I am unable to understand how people can enjoy listening to it. Every song sounds exactly the same to me, composed of sheer static.

And no I'm not trying to compare the two, although the Black Dice did have alot of sounds in their set that were similar to what you hear in Merzbow. I said above that I don't like them for the same " reason " I don't like merzbow.

I love the Black Dice and Merzbow both, and yes they are nothing alike. However, Black Dice really aren't the same a lot of the time. What Adam described, they could have been for a phase, and what you describe, I believe they did that night and might be into at the moment. They also do some more straight up noise rock stuff sometimes which is definitely where their roots are. I'm more impressed with a group like them who is always adventurous and trying new things than a group like the Buttholes who are rehashing what they did years ago that was original and in the years in between produced a lot of lame alternative rock with just a hint of their former greatness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISROv...eature=related Black Dice in 2003. This is almost exactly what all of their friday night set consisted of. I'm not complaining, I actually thought they were interesting. I just couldn't deal with a near hour of it

The Butthole Surfers have 9 albums. 2 of those fall into the lame alternative rock category and 1 into a psychedelic hard rock category. They've also said they are going to be recording a new album.

Cool, and here they are a year later in 2004 doing something rather different that is more along the lines of noise rock and certainly rhythmic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVkFhieKkX0

Here they are in Manchester earlier this year making music that actually fits the description Adam gave pretty well (they must have figured they HAD to be dancey in Manchester...):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTLCfj3iy0Q

They do kind of melt into the stuff you saw at this set too, but it was the same year after all, and there's plenty of rhythm leading up to it.


Mind, I love Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac through Hairway to Steven, which is four awesome albums they did in the '80s and I saw them live back then too, though it wasn't the craziest show (I just caught the wrong night from all I understand and believe).

However, they entered the '90s with piouhgd which is like the "we got bored with what we do but are still trying to do it" version of their earlier stuff, and then they did two studio albums that were obviously an attempt at cashing in on the Lollapalooza/Alternative Nation scene that had begun to embrace them and surely got played in frat houses throughout the world.

I haven't heard Weird Revolution, so I'll reserve judgment, though it would bode better if the producer had been Kid 606 rather than Kid Rock.

I do hope they make a new album that lives up to the early days without doing it again all over. I don't think that's impossible at all. I do have better expectations for the next Black Dice record though.

Dead-Air continues to have the best posts on this board...

Anyway, just wanted to say: Merzbow can be pretty hit or miss and some of his stuff may just seem like directionless static, but he actually has a lot of creativity involves in his music, lots of texture... very powerful shit. Some of his material is just exceptional, the best around. Some of it, not so much. I'm just saying, dunno how much Merz you've heard, but he may have some better material than what you heard. I've listened to and enjoyed the entire Merzbox, so I'm probably not the best judge of quality when it comes to his stuff.

That last Black Dice record was pretty dancey, my friend Toby told me that he played it at a party a few weeks ago and people were kinda dancing around to it, stoned. I bet that was a sight.

No way. I love pioughd, and I can't understand why so many people don't. It's essentially Hairway to Steven with one drummer instead of two. All of the acid is still there, revolution part 1, Barking Dogs, Blindman, Hurdy Gurdy Man. Even Revolution Part 2 is reminiscent of the 2nd half of Jimi with the sampled sounds. Great great album. The early 90's were a very interesting time for the Surfers. They were toying around with electronics and would soon make the Digital Dump album. Lots of their experimentation was already showing up in their songs, like the final track on Widowermaker. Pioughd and Widowermaker are both awesome

i'd love to see the Butthole Surfers, but I doubt it could happen easy to me. what a shame...

the BHS rule all. fucking awesome shit.

you gotta remember that by the time of Pioughed and Worm Salloon they had all LEARNED how to PLAY their instruments, so they changed a bit, but the hard driving RAWK on ACID of independent worm saloon holds up big time, that album fucking BLASTS

I love Worm Salloon. It's my favorite next to Hairway to Steven.

As I always say: You can't fucking beat Dust Devil..

I love piough'd as well. Wasn't that their first major label release? Correct me if I'm wrong. That's insane.

I think "To Parter" is my favorite Butthole Surfers song.

Yes it was. Capitol records

Capitol re-issued it, but it was originally on Rough Trade.

That's not entirely true. Jeff and Paul have always been been pretty accomplished guitar players, and King was a drummer for the Hugh Beaumont Experience before he joined Butthole Surfers. King and Theresa played in the same high school marching band

Butthole Surfers Warsaw Brooklyn 2008 NTSC DVD by atarocket

I am just going from what paul and them have said in various guitar magazine interviews. drumming for the hugh beaumont experience dont count for shit.
paul leary's guitar is what make sthe buttholes happen!

From good to bad is a pretty significant change.

black dice fucking sucks, it's just some people saying "look, this makes sounds, people will think we are 'arty'. sweet!!!"

in no way as good as any rhythmless, melodyless sound artists or noisers.

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the buttholes look fucking old.

Suprised to see you say that. Have you listened to Beaches and Canyons?

yeah, i think that one's ok.

i like the troubleman unlimited one where they playing like grindcore with tons of feedback, and that one, but other than that; they are one of the most pointless and boring bands ever.

the butthole surfers ARE fucking old. (relatively)

when i think of the butthole surfers, i don't think old.

i thought gibby would look like an overgrown jerk with a goaty and black hair for fucking ever.

hard livin'

VERY hard livin'

gibby was a crack cocaine addict for a good amount of years back in the mid-late 90's man. that'll mess a man up.

i know, i just thought they weren't normal human-like.

I don't give a fuck about the FBI, I don't give a fuck about the CIA...