the insanity of Anton Newcombe
so Tuesday i saw one of the most crazy, frightening, great, bizarre and unforgettable shows ever. who played you ask? The Brian Jonestown Massacre. for those of you who don't know, The Brian Jonestown Massacre is the brainchild of a man who is either the greatest actor ever or one of the most insane characters in the lexicon of rock 'n' roll since Roky Erickson, his name is Anton Newcombe.
the show started with some band that really sucked opening the show. after they ended Anton's voice came over the PA telling us that the High Dials would be next and that they were a great band from Montreal (Sara's home, yay!) then he gave some weird speech about how we were in San Francisco the land of rainbows, unicorns and glitter, all things you couldn't find if you were lying face down in the water dying like our brothers and sisters in New Orleans, he then started bashing Bush and he would change his tone of voice from joking to angry at the drop of a dime, his speech was laced with more profanity than i've heard at any show in my life and keep in mind that i've seen Iggy Pop 3 times.
next, after about 30 minutes of Anton DJing the High Dials took the stage, they were really good, good energy, good songs. about halfway through their set Anton comes out and sitting by the drummer smoking and drinking and looking insane. after they finish the next song Anton calls out to the singer and asks if he can come speak, he gets permission and comes out to the mic and tells us how great the High Dials are and then starts berating the crowd for not responding as well as they should to them. then he explains that the club added the first band at the last minute and that he is firing them from the tour and that they can pretty much go get fucked. he then tells the High Dials that even though they are being told they have 10 more minutes he would like to hear them play for another 40 minutes and that the club can go fuck themselves too. (at this point i'd like to remind anyone reading this that i am extremely paraphrasing every speech by Anton and you need to add about 10 "fuck"s to each one). during the High Dials last song which included some kickass sitar playing Anton came out and was trying to plug a guitar into an amp so he could play again, i was extremely looking forward to this but he couldn't figure out that the switch was on the back so he just gave up that thought.
so after quite awhile more of the band setting up their gear while Anton DJed some more he finally comes onstage and gives a speech about how he'd like to have an ice bucket or a pitcher sent around so that we could take a collection for the hurricane victims, but his speech was so profanity laden and bizarre full of indictments of the government planning "level 4" testing on diseases that can be spread through water and about how people were watching their mothers, fathers and sons drown and then blow up in the heat because they were left for dead on a highway, this prompted a lot of indifference, anger and heckling from the crowd which begat Anton telling people he would kick their ass, kill them or fuck them. when he finally decides to start the show after about 10 minutes of speech giving he realizes that his guitar is missing a string so then he goes after his band, giving a speech about how none of them give a fuck about him and they are selfish, etc. so after Anton puts a new string on they were finally ready to start. they start the song and Anton starts singing and you can tell he's pissed right from the start, he asks the soundman, "John", where his reverb is, he gets so fed up that they stop the song and he starts verbally attacking John with a vengeance, he bashes the club some more and then they finally try to start the song again but now there's these fucked up spotlights in Anton's eyes so he stops the song and says they'll come back to it and he starts railing against the lighting guy to turn off the spotlights, the lighting guy obviously thought it was his place to fight back against Anton and he wouldn't budge with the lights so Anton tells him that he doesn't give a fuck, he'll stand up there for 45 minutes without playing a song and that he'll take all our money and leave.
the lighting guy was being a complete prick, i mean who wants to get berated at work by a drunken, stoned musician, but you also have to think about the fact that there's a sold out room full of people who paid good money to see said drunken musician and if swallowing your pride and turning off some blinding spotlights is the only way to insure they get to see a show you need to flip the fucking switch i say. the battle between Anton and the lighting guy went on for a LONG time with Anton saying that until the guy turned off the lights and then left the board and didn't mess with the lights again he wouldn't play again. at one point he even wanted someone to go kick the guys ass for him. also during this fiasco people were heckling Anton which fueled the fire, he was positively hateful in his indictment's against the hipster crowd living on daddy's dime. finally he got the lights how he wanted and they started another song.
after 2 songs that went off relatively without a hitch, other than Frankie's amp shorting a bit, Anton felt the need to talk again. this, of course, prompted more heckling and abuse from the crowd, which again 'caused Anton to tell people he would kill them, he wanted to meet them outside the club afterwards and he'd kick their asses, he didn't give a fuck about us, he's more than happy to steal our money and various other abusive things.
at one point a guy in a hat yelled something and Anton went at him worse than anyone else, he said that the guy was wearing a hat because he's hiding the fact that he's bald and that god made him bald to warn beautiful women to not fuck him because he has bad jeans and will cause them to have ugly children, he also said some stuff about the man's father fucking him when he was a child. after this exchange they made it through another song, "Hide And Seek", at the end of which Anton sang the outro to "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" by the Smiths for a LONG time, it was beautiful.
after the song someone yelled something about that being a Smiths song, who knows what they were trying to do with the comment but it provoked Anton to tell them to fuck themselves and then he explained that he sang that because the Brian Jonestown Massacre was the Smiths of San Francisco and that back in the day this club wouldn't let them play and neither would any other club so they had to rent out halls to get shows because while they "wanted to play music everybody else just wanted to listen to Pearl Jam". at this point something got thrown onstage and Anton told someone to take a picture of the guy who threw it so he could remember what he looked like 'cause he wanted to kill him. other shit was getting thrown onstage and someone up front put a painting they had done onstage and right when they did Anton was all "people keep throwing shit onstage like this shit" and he picked up the painting but then he looked at it and changed from angry to pleased and said that it was quality and then he posed with it.
after another song he gave another speach about how shitty the club was and how the crowd was full of people who live off their parents bank accounts and ride skateboards and get fucked in the ass by their dads and how Anton has fucked our girlfriends and will fuck them again. then he made sure they had time for one more song and got told they had time for one more and that they had about 5-10 minutes, Anton said that if the club hadn't added that first band to the bill and if they didn't have a curfew they would play a mulitple hour set like they do in every other town and then they launched into their last song which was "Swallowtail" and i swear they must have played it for 15-20 minutes and it was amazing.
so at this point i'm well aware that all i've discussed so far is the bizarre behaviour of Anton Newcombe and some / most of you are probably thinking to yourself "and you enjoyed this?" or "why the fuck would you stand there and put up with this?" and the answer quite simply is this: THE MUSIC. the music of The Brian Jonestown Massacre is THAT good, when they finally cut the shit (which i found entertaining too though) and play music it is amazing, awe-inspiring and the kind of thing that reminds you why you love music in the first place. all in all, in this hour and 40 minute set i can only remember 5 songs being played: "When Jokers Attack", "Servo", "Nailing Honey To The Bee", "Hide And Seek" and "Swallowtail", i'm pretty sure one or 2 more songs got played, but that's what i remember them playing and it was worth every red cent i paid to see it and i would gladly pay twice as much to see the same thing again.
the show started with some band that really sucked opening the show. after they ended Anton's voice came over the PA telling us that the High Dials would be next and that they were a great band from Montreal (Sara's home, yay!) then he gave some weird speech about how we were in San Francisco the land of rainbows, unicorns and glitter, all things you couldn't find if you were lying face down in the water dying like our brothers and sisters in New Orleans, he then started bashing Bush and he would change his tone of voice from joking to angry at the drop of a dime, his speech was laced with more profanity than i've heard at any show in my life and keep in mind that i've seen Iggy Pop 3 times.
next, after about 30 minutes of Anton DJing the High Dials took the stage, they were really good, good energy, good songs. about halfway through their set Anton comes out and sitting by the drummer smoking and drinking and looking insane. after they finish the next song Anton calls out to the singer and asks if he can come speak, he gets permission and comes out to the mic and tells us how great the High Dials are and then starts berating the crowd for not responding as well as they should to them. then he explains that the club added the first band at the last minute and that he is firing them from the tour and that they can pretty much go get fucked. he then tells the High Dials that even though they are being told they have 10 more minutes he would like to hear them play for another 40 minutes and that the club can go fuck themselves too. (at this point i'd like to remind anyone reading this that i am extremely paraphrasing every speech by Anton and you need to add about 10 "fuck"s to each one). during the High Dials last song which included some kickass sitar playing Anton came out and was trying to plug a guitar into an amp so he could play again, i was extremely looking forward to this but he couldn't figure out that the switch was on the back so he just gave up that thought.
so after quite awhile more of the band setting up their gear while Anton DJed some more he finally comes onstage and gives a speech about how he'd like to have an ice bucket or a pitcher sent around so that we could take a collection for the hurricane victims, but his speech was so profanity laden and bizarre full of indictments of the government planning "level 4" testing on diseases that can be spread through water and about how people were watching their mothers, fathers and sons drown and then blow up in the heat because they were left for dead on a highway, this prompted a lot of indifference, anger and heckling from the crowd which begat Anton telling people he would kick their ass, kill them or fuck them. when he finally decides to start the show after about 10 minutes of speech giving he realizes that his guitar is missing a string so then he goes after his band, giving a speech about how none of them give a fuck about him and they are selfish, etc. so after Anton puts a new string on they were finally ready to start. they start the song and Anton starts singing and you can tell he's pissed right from the start, he asks the soundman, "John", where his reverb is, he gets so fed up that they stop the song and he starts verbally attacking John with a vengeance, he bashes the club some more and then they finally try to start the song again but now there's these fucked up spotlights in Anton's eyes so he stops the song and says they'll come back to it and he starts railing against the lighting guy to turn off the spotlights, the lighting guy obviously thought it was his place to fight back against Anton and he wouldn't budge with the lights so Anton tells him that he doesn't give a fuck, he'll stand up there for 45 minutes without playing a song and that he'll take all our money and leave.
the lighting guy was being a complete prick, i mean who wants to get berated at work by a drunken, stoned musician, but you also have to think about the fact that there's a sold out room full of people who paid good money to see said drunken musician and if swallowing your pride and turning off some blinding spotlights is the only way to insure they get to see a show you need to flip the fucking switch i say. the battle between Anton and the lighting guy went on for a LONG time with Anton saying that until the guy turned off the lights and then left the board and didn't mess with the lights again he wouldn't play again. at one point he even wanted someone to go kick the guys ass for him. also during this fiasco people were heckling Anton which fueled the fire, he was positively hateful in his indictment's against the hipster crowd living on daddy's dime. finally he got the lights how he wanted and they started another song.
after 2 songs that went off relatively without a hitch, other than Frankie's amp shorting a bit, Anton felt the need to talk again. this, of course, prompted more heckling and abuse from the crowd, which again 'caused Anton to tell people he would kill them, he wanted to meet them outside the club afterwards and he'd kick their asses, he didn't give a fuck about us, he's more than happy to steal our money and various other abusive things.
at one point a guy in a hat yelled something and Anton went at him worse than anyone else, he said that the guy was wearing a hat because he's hiding the fact that he's bald and that god made him bald to warn beautiful women to not fuck him because he has bad jeans and will cause them to have ugly children, he also said some stuff about the man's father fucking him when he was a child. after this exchange they made it through another song, "Hide And Seek", at the end of which Anton sang the outro to "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" by the Smiths for a LONG time, it was beautiful.
after the song someone yelled something about that being a Smiths song, who knows what they were trying to do with the comment but it provoked Anton to tell them to fuck themselves and then he explained that he sang that because the Brian Jonestown Massacre was the Smiths of San Francisco and that back in the day this club wouldn't let them play and neither would any other club so they had to rent out halls to get shows because while they "wanted to play music everybody else just wanted to listen to Pearl Jam". at this point something got thrown onstage and Anton told someone to take a picture of the guy who threw it so he could remember what he looked like 'cause he wanted to kill him. other shit was getting thrown onstage and someone up front put a painting they had done onstage and right when they did Anton was all "people keep throwing shit onstage like this shit" and he picked up the painting but then he looked at it and changed from angry to pleased and said that it was quality and then he posed with it.
after another song he gave another speach about how shitty the club was and how the crowd was full of people who live off their parents bank accounts and ride skateboards and get fucked in the ass by their dads and how Anton has fucked our girlfriends and will fuck them again. then he made sure they had time for one more song and got told they had time for one more and that they had about 5-10 minutes, Anton said that if the club hadn't added that first band to the bill and if they didn't have a curfew they would play a mulitple hour set like they do in every other town and then they launched into their last song which was "Swallowtail" and i swear they must have played it for 15-20 minutes and it was amazing.
so at this point i'm well aware that all i've discussed so far is the bizarre behaviour of Anton Newcombe and some / most of you are probably thinking to yourself "and you enjoyed this?" or "why the fuck would you stand there and put up with this?" and the answer quite simply is this: THE MUSIC. the music of The Brian Jonestown Massacre is THAT good, when they finally cut the shit (which i found entertaining too though) and play music it is amazing, awe-inspiring and the kind of thing that reminds you why you love music in the first place. all in all, in this hour and 40 minute set i can only remember 5 songs being played: "When Jokers Attack", "Servo", "Nailing Honey To The Bee", "Hide And Seek" and "Swallowtail", i'm pretty sure one or 2 more songs got played, but that's what i remember them playing and it was worth every red cent i paid to see it and i would gladly pay twice as much to see the same thing again.