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Butthole Surfers' Legendary Line-Up Fails to Impress at Pop Montreal

Legendary punk rock icons the Butthole Surfers brought their 1989 line-up reunion tour to Pop Montreal , headlining the Theatre Olympia for one of the music festival's most pre-hyped shows.

For weeks, the local punk-loving press had been brought to fevered euphoria for this show, with many pre-festival recommendations raving about frontman Gibby Haynes' outspoken attitude and the band's celebrated stature in the psych-punk world. Sadly, few beyond the old punk-rock guard heard the message. So, while the band played with the vigor of men twenty years their junior, the not-quite-sold-out venue seemed to let the ripened punkers down, awkwardly bestowing the lauded reunion with a sense of unexpected pity.

Performing in front of three-panel videos that flashed the band's customary collection of disturbing imagery, Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary ripped through such career-defining classics as 'Bar-B-Q Pope' and 'Moving to Florida,' backed by the band's signature duel-drumming assault. The disheveled-looking Haynes didn't help his own cause by keeping between song banter to a minimum, ostensibly to let his legendary, demented lyrics speak for themselves.

For the die-hards that did make it out -- easily recognizable among the well-dressed hipsters -- the band's perfunctory performance was more than enough. But for the uninitiated who followed the hype to see one of the most enigmatic bands of the 80s and early 90s, the reunited Buttholes pretty much sucked a--.

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Helb

You were probably all of three years old when they were at their peak, so what the f do you know? And since you're at the journalistic level of saying 'sucked a--' in a review, let me retort with a very mature 'no, YOU DO!'. It's penues like you who ruin shows for the rest of us.

October 12 2009 at 2:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jason

thats to bad cause the show in Toronto was amazing they were awesome and the show went off without a hitch even got to meet the band afterwards and welcome them to Canada with a bunch of green bats if ya know what i'm saying they were totally cool no attitude it was great and i would have to say was one of the best shows i've seen in a while so its to bad but maybe the crowd wasn't into it so they probably just wanted to go but they sure tore up the Pheonix in Toronto on the 2nd i'll tell ya.

October 06 2009 at 10:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply