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--.