...Aaaand they're off!

Addicted To Noise Chicago Correspondent Gil Kaufman reports:

Leave it to the Jesus Lizard to stage their major-label coming out party at a harness-racing track. You could almost hear the sound of paychecks being sucked out of the pockets of factory workers downstairs as the industry crowd gathered in a party room on the third floor of Maywood Racetrack last Friday (April 12) to wolf down free chow, swill free booze and bet on the ponies in the first race of the night (horses with names like "Mucho Lito," "Timeformetofly," "Almostalpo," "HP's Bad Boy," "Random Pattern," and "El Tiburon"), which was sponsored by the band. Honestly. It said so right there on the racing form. You knew it was Maywood when you saw that the third race was sponsored by the Brian Phelan bachelor party, the fourth by the David Tenuta bachelor party and the fifth by the Refrigeration Service Engineers Society. As one attendee boldly stated, "leave it to white trash like Yow and the guys to have their party at a trashy place like this."

The non-event event--which, at the very least, gave the hundred or so industry wags gathered a chance to bet the ponies without having to make excuses to their bosses--didn't include a performance by the band (hell, I didn't even hear their music playing anywhere), but it did offer the first glimpse at "The Jesus Lizard Palace," described by a press release as a "three-dimensional graphic chat environment." After the glitches were worked out, the two multimedia computers set up on either end of a dining room remained conspicuously underused, while the thousand-seat balcony overlooking the track saw a steady stream of winners and losers cheering on their horses (being a novice, I bet conservatively and went home a full twenty cents richer).

The real action came the next night. Taking the stage of the packed Vic theater on Saturday night, after a set by Skeleton Key that apparently involved much banging on pots, pans and oil drums (I missed it thanks to the notoriously hairy parking situation around the Vic) and a too-long set of punky keyboard skronk from Six Finger Satellite, the Jesus Lizard smashed the place apart, literally.

Lead singer David Yow had not even managed to launch himself onto the crowd (a favorite and frequent stunt) before he drew blood. While violently tossing aside his mike stand, Yow upended the thing and it snapped back up, nailing him right under his left eye, immediately drawing blood and a swelling bruise that just got worse as the show went on. Yow, ever the professional and apparently blessed with little or no remaining nerve endings, barely flinched, took a swig of beer, and hurled himself onto the adoring crowd, who quickly spirited him almost 15 feet away from the stage, mike and all. The stumbling front man, who more than once began and ended songs while held aloft, hit the deck at least half a dozen times more over the course of the hour and a half show. Slipping flat on his face, thanks to a spilled beer on the stage, Yow thudded onto his chest, a sound quite audible in the mike, and spent more than his fair share of time writhing on the stage and crawling around amongst his suddenly stalwart-looking backing trio.

If Yow was the untamed wild man flying by the seat of his pants, the other three Lizards (Duane Denison (guitar), Mac McNeilly (drums), David Sims (bass)) were the consummate and grinding professionals keeping the beat, clanging through new material and old and otherwise proving that major-label or not, the Jesus Lizard are one of the most aggressive and (surprisingly) tight hard music bands around.

After a barrage of five songs, Yow took time out to breathlessly thank the crowd for "spending your hard-earned cash on our show." Yow thanked the crowd in a similar fashion about six songs later adding, "even though we're on a major label now." More pratfalls ensued, augmented by some comical moments that found Yow rapping a security guard on the noggin with the mike, a touching head-lock on a different security guard whom Yow let growl into the mike mid-song, and the final kiss-off, during which Yow took back his thanks for the earlier hard-earned cash statement and barreled off the stage. The next morning, having reviewed the spectacles of the previous two nights, I came to the conclusion that the Jesus Lizard really have been transformed by the sudden infusion of major-label cash. The food was a lot better at their Capitol-funded release party and, if I'm not mistaken, Yow may have been drinking imported beer on stage.