It was a weeknight, if I recall.
Myself and another friend from college-the same person who introduced me to Scratch Acid's first e.p.-made the ninety minute drive south to check them out at a place called The Central in Iowa City.
It was a pretty nice club and had some great bookings for the short amount of time it was open. Not a lot of people came down for the show, but we convinced another friend of mine to join us for this encounter, sight unseen.
David Yow hadn't perfected his derring-do persona yet. Instead, he paced the stage, which wasn't even much of a stage, and looked menacing. Pretty much the same way you'll see in the video below.
While Yow spent most of his time with the Jesus Lizard out in the crowd, the crowd seemed to avoid him during the Iowa City performance. Only a few unsavory types made their way close to the disheveled Yow.
When I did eventually see the Jesus Lizard, Yow was revelatory. While Scratch Acid seemed like the only opportunity for him, the Jesus Lizard sounded like the last one. As a result, he gave everything during the performance, risking life and limb.
This isn't to suggest that Scratch Acid weren't anything to sneeze at; Scratch Acid were a very capable and menacing band that sounded just as good during the Touch & Go 25th Anniversary shows as they did during the first-run performance that I had a chance to catch.
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