This article about the Jesus Lizard's recent reunion tour opens with a brilliantly accurate description of the crowd that gathered to see them at New Brunswick's fabled Court Tavern, circa 1992. The piece was penned by Sam Shiffman, whom locals will remember as Central Jersey's pre-eminent punk rock wise-ass, and frontman for Scott Hall hardcore matinee perennials P.E.D. (Post Ejaculation Depression). Never one to mince words, Sam's characterization of the criminal element drawn to the band and club at that time is nothing if not utterly succinct:
On this night, like most at the Court Tavern, the downstairs bar is filled with some of the most despicable human flotsam that I have ever seen and their assorted hangers on. We are not talking college tattoo wannabes. We are talking real Nazis, real heroin addicts and life's real losers. The obscenely obese man standing next to me smells like what I would expect an obscenely fat man to smell like. He was just shooting up in the backseat of my car ten minutes ago... and I always thought heroin addicts were supposed to be thin.
Read the rest here, then go download a goodly chunk of P.E.D.'s recorded output, now available courtesy of WFMU's Free Music Archive. Here's the mighty "NcO2 Death" to get you off and running.
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