Thursday, April 12, 2007

Jesus Lizard Live DVD announced

Jesus Fucking Lizard Christ: The Fork announced that a live Jesus Lizard DVD will be released in early June. Now, I’m still a little pissed that David Yow has yet to approve me as a MySpace “friend” (even though that cocksucker Prindle has him prominently featured on his M.S. page) and some of the footage looks a little amateurish (lots of in-and-out zooming from the footage of “Seasick” on You Tube from the DVD’s distributor), it still hasn’t prevented me from getting a boner over the idea of having an official document to coincide with my own fond memories.
And yet another reason to get lost in the world of You Tube (which I often do): footage of Yow’s original band, Scratch Acid, both in their prime (circa late 80’s) and in their most recent “reunion” performances while they were preparing for Touch & Go’s anniversary concerts. Judging from the video, the guys still knew how to rock and in a more frightening coincidence, David Yow is starting to look more like my own Grandfather as he gets older.
It’s pretty cool how Dave hasn’t traveled far from those original Scratch Acid lyrics (“She Said”) of “I’m not using my body anymore…So you can play with it if you want to.”
For me, David Yow was the most exciting performer to grace the stage since Iggy Pop, and that’s saying something.
Cross Iggy with a little bit of Lux Interior and you get a good idea of what it was like to see Yow on stage.
I’ve gone on about these guys before, and nothing I write does the primal ferocity of their live performances any justice. The best thing for me to do is provide the obligatory clip.
But even that was a struggle.
Do I post the live footage of The Jesus Lizard in Dallas from ’94? The one where Yow gets hit with a beer bottle a minute into “Seasick,” causing the band to stop, the crowd to seek out the culprit, before Yow utters “Nice shot” before he takes a swig of beer and leads the band into the song again?
How about the Chicago ’96 footage where some unhappy novices declare that the show should have been shut down by police because the band was a bunch of “unorganized hooligans.”
Or perhaps the video from CBGB’s from New Year’s Eve in ’97, where Yow’s boot hits the camera as he is passed around the crowd.
No, my best bet is to post a concise video that features both the intensity of their shows along with an interview that nicely captures Yow’s humor as well. But those fuckers won’t let me embed it (find it here).
I’ve settled for another piece of footage from the Chicago footage at the Vic Theatre (which someone should look into releasing). It’s a live version of “Destroy Before Reading,” where Yow sings to the security guy at the front of the stage immediately before leaving it to be closer to the crowd.
Inspirational verse:
“Mingus and Parker fuck for breakfast
Because jazz is a slut again”
Dave is now the new lead singer of the two-piece band Qui.

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