THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610240035 SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL TYPE: Music review SOURCE: BY JEFF MAISEY, SPECIAL TO THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT LENGTH: 42 lines
RIDING A NEW WAVE of success, the Butthole Surfers crashed into the Boathouse on Tuesday night, delivering a flood of new material. In support of their gold-status 13th release, ``Electriclarryland,'' the Texas pioneers of modern underground music wasted no time in getting to the meat of the matter.
After a short instrumental introduction, the Surfers came out strong with the 1970s-hard-rock-sounding ``Cough Syrup,'' which was visually complemented with a color-rich light show that would have made the likes of Deep Purple proud. Then, surprisingly, and to the delight of those in the nearly half-full venue, came their recent No. 1 modern rock song, ``Pepper.''
The unlikely smash hit, created as an experimental accident, is a hip-hop inspired piece which vocalist Gibby Haynes and company turned into the biggest splash of the night. Haynes re-created all of the strange sounding delays and repeats on the actual disc.
Pressing on with more from ``Electriclarryland'' came the straight-ahead punk rock ``Ulcer Breakout,'' made even more powerful with an overwhelming barrage of some 24 pickup-truck-sized strobe lights aimed directly at the audience. The Butthole Surfers then allowed the crowd to recover with the soothing ``Jingle of a Dog's Collar,'' before taking them, once again, on a dizzying back-and-forth panorama of all the weirdness and musical mayhem Haynes, guitarist Paul Leary and drummer King Coffey are known for.
While most every song performed came from their two latest and most successful releases, fans of the Butthole Surfers' earliest material had a moment to celebrate when the group ended the set with ``The Shah Sleeps In Lee Harvey's Grave,'' from their first EP some 15 years ago. Out of the five-song encore, ``Who Was In My Room Last Night?'' drew the greatest reaction from the head-bobbing, body-moshing crowd.
So, how do you make yourself, in advance, look great if you're the Butthole Surfers? Answer: Have Cibo Matto open the show for you. The group, possibly one of the worst bands of all time, simply amused people with cheesy baseball game organ sounds, helped along with sequenced repetition, cover songs and just plain bad singing. They are usually known for performing tunes about food. Perhaps they should stick to cooking, rather than singing. by CNB