our travels have never been so disappointing as when dianogah was in prague on our 2nd eurotour. there was nothing wrong with the show or the venue, our trip had been going well.

but opening was a band. from the states.

there were like 8 or 10 people in the band.

they had a puppet show as a part of their set.

there music was bad "ska"-type punk. (not the "good" ska-type punk we so often see recording over at electrical).

they wore speedos, they wore suspenders, they wore animal masks. they didn't bring their own drums or much in the way of equipment, and needed to borrow stuff.

they were called "soophie nun squad", and i've come to understand that there are actually people who enjoy listening to them.

they made us feel like getting our band all the way to europe was not really much harder than it would have been to, say, get our band all the way to the local vfw hall.

No one will probably have ever heard of these guys except Angry Dragon, but I am now reminded of a band in Baltimore called "Rhinovirus" that used to pull some pretty crazy stunts as well. The most notable I can think of was the time that Russell pulled down his pants and lit his pubes on fire onstage. The smell was ghastly.

ironyengine wrote:No one will probably have ever heard of these guys except Angry Dragon, but I am now reminded of a band in Baltimore called "Rhinovirus" that used to pull some pretty crazy stunts as well. The most notable I can think of was the time that Russell pulled down his pants and lit his pubes on fire onstage. The smell was ghastly.

This one is more funny than weird. Dave, the guitarist, jumped out of a back room or closet without a shirt on and broke almost all of his strings within seconds.

I've seen lots of WTF bands over the years. U.S. Maple at the Ottobar when the singer pulled out a Bowie knife and waved it around as he sang. I believe The Seawhores had their drummer on a videotape and they would determine their set by which videotape of a drummer they inserted. I'm sure there are more but...

they were called "soophie nun squad", and i've come to understand that there are actually people who enjoy listening to them.

this band has quite a bit of a following around here.. uh, around Denver when I lived there. people come up with elaborate costumes/ideas when they go to their shows. i wasn't one of them..

I went to see Bad Brains in the late 80's early 90's and Steel Pole Bathtub opened, I was there to see Bad Brains, so Steel Pole freaked me out.
I was ill-prepared for the tiny cassette player with clanking, moaning, whirly noises on it. In between songs, the singer/git player would walk over to the tape player and gun the rewind key and the squeaking would fly out of the pa.

I didn't like it at the time, but later on I dug it.

When I saw New Brutalism about four years ago, their bass player stared me down for like two minuted in the middle of one of their songs. I had to stand behind them.

The Fatal Flying Guilloteens were very unsettling and scary touring on their first full length. Their singer came out wearing nothing but swimming goggles and Spiderman underoos. They played, and at random points during the set, the singer would punch random people in the face. I got hit twice. Then, he tore a pipe out of the ceiling and started stabbing at people's throats. Everyone took several giant steps back.

The Locust were pretty awesome early on. They'd play a song, and everyone would start slamming, and in between songs, there was no clapping, just wheezing. Awesome.

I would have loved to have seen Impaled Northern Moonforest (Anal Cunt's acoustic Black Metal side-project.)

All great shows...

Three Day Stubble - Weird

Babyland - weirder (These guys used a circular saw to cut down a fence
between them and the audience. The audience held the owners and security at bay until they finished. Good Times!)

Ed HAll - Weirdest

Honorable mention - Supreme Dicks, pOpDefect (these guys played for 5 hours straight, very weird)

I could go on and on, but...

1995, lallapoloza, Dallas Tx,
third (local?) stage,
some band had a frat chick on stage tied up with duct tape while the lead singer, in tighty whities, rubbed on her and shouted...
"look at me now... I'm almost naked, look at me now... I'm all tied up now!!!"
NO IDEA WHO THIS WAS, but it was weird.

magma90210 wrote:Gong a couple of years ago were pretty surreal...this poncy 60-something old dude with a Merlin beard prancing around....the bass player looked like a Hobbit (wasn't wearing shoes either)....pretty strange all the way around....not exactly good, but seemed loveably "off"....

That guy's nuts... Have you heard University of Errors?

Yeah, Gong can be pretty cool... At times they're punk, at times they're jazz... Mr. Pixie, I do love you! They're always humorous...

I recently saw a movie about the Sex Pistols, and Johnny Rotten is saying how shitty Yes, ELP, and Gong are.

Sorry, Johnny... It is, indeed, you who suck very badly...

Anyway, Johnny buggered off... literally... He hosts some show about bugs... Yes and Gong still play music... E, L, and P are still doing music stuff.

There should be a crap/no crap topic about ex punk rockers that host shows on cable TV, like Mr. Rotten and Mr. Rollins...

I dunno... are there any more?

Oh yeah... weirdest band would have to go to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum... Although their looks are very Peter Gabriel influenced (the strangely shaved hair, makeup, etc.)

The amount of home-made crap they have on stage is amazing. The contrast between caucophony and melody!!! Then some speech about having sandwiches in the lobby after the show?!?