Jesus Lizard’s ‘Nub’, Live in 1994: I Miss Scary Music
This is the Jesus Lizard performing their classic jam “Nub,” live in 1994.
The song itself is a hellish deep-fried crotch-grinder made even more frantic by the band playing it at double- speed. In the end here, Duane Denison and David Yow double-team a meddling audience member who makes the horrific mistake of fucking with Duane’s amp, earning a mid-song beatdown. David Sims and Mac McNeilly never miss a beat.
The Jesus Lizard were one of the few authentically scary bands that I’ve ever seen. When all four members locked into their respective grooves, they opened a mildly Satanic portal to a moist, sweaty hell. Imagine teleporting into a dark wooden shack in the middle of the desert at noontime. There is a shirtless, sweating man drinking heavily at a knife-scarred table who looks you deep in the eye and cackles as he offers you a beer. Nothing actually happens, but it could get very, very bad at any moment.
That’s pretty much what the Jesus Lizard felt like in concert, plus a very real fear of being trampled or accidentally touching the singer’s exposed penis. It was easier to do than you might think.
I can’t even say that shows like that were even fun, in a traditional sense of the word. They were just so magnetic and powerful that you had to go, just to see what was going to happen. I always came out a little different, changed.
I worry that those days are gone. Now when I see live music (less and less with each year), I love it but get a little bored. I don’t feel the thrill and terror that I used to get. Sometimes I worry that it’s me, being too adult and jaded. Other times I worry that it’s the music itself, that we are in a wash of pissweak derivative bands that really actually can’t hold a candle to the jams of days long dead.
I happened to run into Ian Mackaye (yes, that one) at a gallery opening in D.C. for Suzie Horgan’s book a few months ago, and I asked him about this phenomenon. His bands basically triggered TWO major revolutions in American rock music, I figure he should know a thing or two about it. This is what he said, reconstructed in its essence from my memory:
It’s all in your head. Trust me, music is safe and kids are still doing incredible things. It’s just that you, at this point in your life are unaware of it. Take a look at this picture, for example
He walked me over to this photo:
If you, in your life now, happened to walk past this you’d just think it was a bunch of kids in a parking lot. You wouldn’t have known that it was historic hardcore, or thought anything other than some kids hanging out. this stuff is all around us, all the time, little groups of people forming communities and trying out new ideas. Good, new ideas happen in small groups and the word doesn’t always get out very well — but the results can be so incredible if you’re right at the middle of it all.
On a grand, humanist scale, I am completely relieved: weird music is safe, rock is still scary and shows are still dangerous. Just in different ways. But I’m really sad, too — because while music is wild and life is still weird, it’s harder and harder every day for me to walk into that little room in the desert and cackle over beer with the sweaty man.
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October 29th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
This makes me a little sad. I’m going to see Ryan Adams at DAR Constitution Hall Tuesday night. There’s nothing scary or dark about the singer or the venue.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
An old friend of mine used to date him, and apparently there’s PLENTY scary about that guy.
October 29th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Back in the day, I remember seeing the Jesus Lizard with Steve Albini running the sound board. It was by far the loudest show that I’ve ever attended. I swear that the combo of Seve being deaf as a doorknob and the Jesus Lizard liking to play loud was pretty dangerous. Pretty decent show though.
October 29th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
ian’s right…just go to any small or college town in the US and you will be inspired. there’s tons of amazing shit going on all the time. i promise.
October 30th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I’m too old for scary music. In fact, these days, about as scary as I get is Mr. Wayne Newton.
Yes. the icy hand of death is upon me. It’s just giving me a little Shiatzu before closing the deal.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Thanks for this. The first time I saw them, I woke up with bruises on my hipbones the next day from being pushed into the stage so hard. It was scary and vital and visceral in all of those ways that are harder to attain now. And it’s not age that makes it harder to find that again, it’s experience — nothing lives up to the first time or even twentieth time, whereas if you didn’t see your first scary rock show until you were 30, it would have a bigger impact. What captivates kids now usually reminds me of something I’ve seen before.
October 31st, 2007 at 8:45 am
Man I know what you mean. I think it depends on where you live. But a look at Pitchfork et al seems to confirm that scary heavy music with creepy singers is not really popping right now.
I love that your post confirms, as always, that if you hang around DC enough you will run into Ian and be able to ask him a question like this and he will actually think about it and give you an answer.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:26 pm
“They were just so magnetic and powerful that you had to go, just to see what was going to happen.”
There were two bands that did that for me back in the early nineties growing up in Houston. (Funny that the JL YouTube clip was filmed there.) They were: Sprawl (who was from Houston) and Billygoat (who I think was from Dallas). Texas had a pretty great music scene back then. I’m sure it still does, but when I’ve gone back to Austin to see shows I kind of feel similar to what you’ve described. I think I’m just too old to appreciate it anymore. In another 10 years, I’m going to be one of those grumpy 40-somethings that tell kids how music was so great in my day, back in the 90’s, and now it’s all crap. And I’ll know it’s not true, but it’ll be fun to say anyway.
November 3rd, 2007 at 7:23 pm
I drive around with Head/Pure in my car. When I hear bad club music coming from another car in my hood, I crank that son’bitch. Those first bass lines of One Evening pummel and overcome what my friend calls “boom boom music”. But then I get to SDBJ and I’m scared David Yow is going to peel through the speakers like Freddy Kruger through Johnny Depp’s bed and strangle me with a mic chord. Jeff, I can’t believe you met Ian McKaye. Fugazi is hands down the best band that existed in my lifetime.
November 4th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Reid — Thanks for dropping by. And yeah, meeting Ian Mackaye was pretty special, but what made it more special is that it was a total non-event. Like Richard mentioned earlier, if you hang around DC long enough you’re gonna meet the Fugazi guys. And as long as you don’t completely act a fool, they’re gonna be nice to you.