OF THE JESUS LIZARD

Led Zeppelin The Summit, Houston

(May 23, 1977) I love Led Zeppelin, and it was my first concert, so I was pretty excited. I was 17. I remember walking in, and all the lights were on, and the stage was all lit up. There was no opening band, and I could see John Bonham's drum set and Jimmy Page's cabinet that said Zoso on it, and I was thinking, "Goddamn, man, they're here. I can't fuckin' believe this." They played just shy of four hours. Just great.

The Dirty Three The most evocative thing happening right now. The last time I saw them, I cried. I did. It was in Perth, Australia. Patsy Cline's gone - you can't see her shows - but the Dirty Three are here. You can cry at their shows. That's what so cool about them. What bands can make you cry? Well, I'm sure if I went to see Silverchair, I'd probably cry and leave thinking about the gas money I spent getting there.

Hattiesburg, Miss. We played there once about six years ago. We had one record out, and nobody knew who we were. It was really fucked up: The PA wasn't a PA; the people who worked there didn't know what they were doing; and the club wasn't really a club. The kids were very excited. The promoter was like, "This is so great. This is the best thing we've had since the Rhythm Pigs three years ago." And I'm goin', "Wow, this is important."

Gospel shows on public-access TV They're amazing when there's a piano, drummer, and preacher, and they're just really fuckin' lettin' loose.

The Swap No. 2 Vivid Video (1994) Screw magazine gave it to me when they interviewed us. It's the best hardcore porn film I've seen. The lighting's good; there's actual acting, directing, and there's a plot. And the music is good enough that I didn't notice it. One of the stars in it is named Lene. I recently saw her on Howard Stern, and that was really funny.

"E.T" Directed by Steven Spielberg I cry when they find him and he's all pale in that ravine. I cry at Miracle on 34^th Street. I cry really easily. There ya go.

The Dicks I have never seen another band like the Dicks and I'm sure I never will. Their mix of soul, Motown, and punk was inspirational. They were fun and at the same time VERY intimidating. The Dicks changed my life.

Ride: "A candy-apple red '97 Ford Ranger."

System: "The CD player it came with."

The Specials: "It's got a feature I wish our touring van had: a built-in compressor. If we're on the road in the van, listening to something really dynamic - like Slint or Einsturzende Neubauten - and you've got the windows rolled down at all, you can't hear any of the quiet parts. The compressor pulls 'em up a bit. It's a good thing to have in a truck."

Road Rules: "I mostly drive by myself. It's just about the only place I listen to music."

"Yow is used to unfamiliar territory, coming from a military family that would move every few years to settle in exotic locales ranging from England - where Yow "learned to smoke and first kissed a girl and felt any titties" - to Tripoli, Libya, a stay distinguished by "getting mugged by a couple of Arabs and getting into my first fight." "It was a Sunday school," Yow says. "I busted this kid's head open. It was just luck - I wasn't very close to him; I just threw a rock. It was probably about God or some debate about religion."

Yow's family eventually returned to the United States, settling in Texas, where his sister married a cop, and Yow quickly dropped out of college. "I was getting A's in all my art classes but D's and F's in everything else," Yow says. "My parents told me one more F and they were going to quit paying for it. I got several more F's, thank you, and all of a sudden - punk rock!"

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