Butthole Surfers

I didn't follow their development in the 90s anymore (I've heard complaints about a sellout) but I am real happy to have seen the Butthole Surfers live on stage 1987/88 in West Berlin.

The club at Nollendorfplatz was rather small and packed to the rim. The grungy backwater island of Berlin, surrounded by the wall, with its still war-scarred streets and the dark and timeless never-never-land feeling that permeated everything and everyone provided the perfect backdrop for their show. Which remains among the top three I ever attended. Completely brainless.

The sound rolled over us like the bulldozers projected onto the screen behind. The naked dancer was there, on a small pedestal, the films showing construction works and surgery and whatnot, she moving epileptically to the music, at one point starting to vomit into her hands and throwing the puke into the raving audience. A revelation. I've never so sweated.

I recommend the double live album for starters, it conveys at least a faint shadow of the Surfers' stage presence. Of the studio albums Locust Abortion Technician is probably their most accomplished. Five stars for lifetime achievement in any case.

Anyone who saw this band at their peak knows how amazing and demented they truly were. Distorted 'gibbytronix' vocals over a cacophony of whirling punk psychedelia that dripped of darkness and at times was menacing in its heaviness. Like a bad fever dream their live shows were especially exciting. At one show in NYC they played a blinding set complete with a naked woman painted blue and dancing while films of surgery played on the wall behind them. The closer was a particularly nasty version of 'Sweatloaf'. The 'Double Live' album showcases them in all of their glory.