Paul Leary and Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers - more photos photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer

Butthole Surfers
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
http://www.buttholesurfers.com
Butthole Surfers Concert Photos
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
Stubb's BarBQ(Austin, Texas)
Also: Fuckemos, The Kills

The infamous Gibby Haynes and the Butthole Surfers returned to the Austin stage after a long absence and despite predictions no one died during the performance, though polls heavily favored Gibby.

Long known for their live antics like packing a shotgun onstage or playing with matches and lighter fluid in a club with limited fire exits, Saturdays performance at Stubb's was rather calm by comparison, though the crowd surfers almost overwhelmed the barrier more than once, despite the triple security in the pit. It could be that time has finally tempered the band, it could be the miles, but it certainly hasn't tempered their ability to attract controversy, and Gibby and crew aren't ready to retire out to Sun City and start voting Republican just yet.

Although the Surfers and I had crossed path's many, many times in the early 80's during Austin's heyday as the state's punk rock mecca, I only actually saw them perform once back in "The Day". That show was probably in 81 or 82 down at the old Club Foot on 4th Street, next to the bus station. Club Foot was a split evel club in the warehouse district whose interior walls were covered in sheet metal, and though the acoustics did nothing to enhance the performance, neither did a lot of the bands they booked.

Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers - more photos photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer

At that show an early version of the Surfers opened for Austin's Big Boys, and my memory of the performance was that they were looking for a sound and were as yet a long way off. Still, the band had a certain stage presence, and that presence could be summed up in one word - revolting.

The band had discovered early that the performance is the performance, rather than the music. You didn't have to be good musically to attract an audience, you just had to have a performance that they wanted to watch. And in Austin in the late 70's and early 80's the best way to do that as a punk band was to be shocking, to push the envelopes of taste and propriety, and challenge the social and politcal morays of the establishment. The Hun's did it by kissing a police officer at Rauls, getting arrested, and almost starting a riot, which made Austin an early "scene". Gibby Haynes did it at that show by wearing a bright red T-Shirt that depicted a gay cowboy sporting a massive erection while stumbling about the stage abusing himself with a loaded staple gun. Their is something about a bleeding man with an erection shirt screaming profanity at you through a P.A. that sticks in your mind. I certainly remembered them, and when I later heard of GG Allin, I thought GG stole their act.

Though I missed the rest of their performances in the 80's and 90's, the band actually managed to learn how to play their instruments and wrap their stage show in some interesting and culturally relevant songs, and they turned out to be actually quite good musically. In 1981, not so much. Still I followed the band, bought all their records, followed them in the press, and watched as their legend grew.

Paul Leary of the Butthole Surfers - more photos photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer

The Surfers lived up to their legend status Saturday night at their sold out performance. Old punks from "back in the day", young punks and metalheads there to see and surf, even the press were out in droves to catch the show, and I don't think anyone walked away disappointed. Covering songs from throughout their catalog, the pit area was a war zone as the masses continually battled with security and threatened to flow over the barrier. Gibby was up to his usual antics, appearing initially in a T- Shirt with "Fuck The Man" crudely painted on it, he soon peeled it off to reveal another shirt equally rendered with "Van Palin Sux/Hockey Cunt" which raised a roar from the crowd. Still not satisfied with his sartorial accoutrements he stripped off that shirt a few minutes later revealing a shirt blotted with just the word "Urine". The Surfers set lasted exactly 1 hour and 34 minutes, beating the midnight curfew by a slender 1 minute.

The band sounded great and I look forward to seeing them tour and record again.

Opening the show were the Fuckemos, an Austin institution for over 20 years, playing the Stubb's stage for the very first time. To describe their sound and their songs, imagine a 3 minute dry belch set to metal and punk guitar work. These guys might have pioneered the whole cookie monster vocal thing, but they never seemed to break big because of the limits imposed by the bands name.

The Kills were the second band on the bill and I was impressed by their music and their stage presence. Kind of like a more melodic and harmonic White Stripes, this duo wasn't quite weird enough for the scene that night but I really enjoyed their set and their sound. With a sound thats stripped down to bare bones, they had a raw energy that made it tough to turn away. Oh, and if anyone finds The Kill's tour bus, let them know. They appear to have mis-placed it en route back to Los Angeles.

Thanks to everyone at Stubb's, C3, ACL, and The Butthole Surfers for inviting us out.