TO PARTER

I love the Butthole Surfers.



Butthole Surfers were notorious for two things; their energetic, chaotic live show and the copious amounts of psychedelic drugs they ingested. This 1984 performance on a New York city public access station successfully showcases the band's acid drenched, manic performance style. The music is surprisingly coherent, despite Gibby and Paul both clearly being completely out of it. Paul's facial expressions are the highlight of this performance for me. His mannerisms remind me of a rabid animal lurching around or a hobo trying to dance at the peak of a six month long binge.







Butthole Surfers - Live on the Scott and Gary Show

After this performance, the band is interviewed by Scott (of the Scott and Gary Show,) but its hardly an interview at all. Paul repeatedly gets up, goes to his guitar, plays a note, sets it down and then returns to his seat next to Scott, putting his arm around him affectionately while the whole time, Gibby is slowly but surely disrobing. This "interview" really sums up the Butthole Surfers' unparalleled depravity. These guys (and girl) were making truly unique music in a truly unique manner in the early and mid 80s. Unfortunately, like all train wrecks, the rubble is eventually cleared away and the spectacle dissapates. Everyone knows the 1996 hit single "Pepper," it doesn't hold a candle to the unbridled creative insanity that the band exhibited in the early-mid 1980s.

Addendum: Eyeball Studies does not support or condone drug use.