So on my myspace page, a friend casually bulletins that he’s heading down to Austin this weekend to see the Scratch Acid show if anyone needs a ride. I find myself at a rare loss for words. Actually, more like dumbfounded. It’s sort of like a friend casually mentioning that he’s going to see Nirvana open up for the Beatles and then go get hammered with Sinatra and Hunter Thompson, if you want to tag along. Not that the guys in the band were dead or anything, but the band itself was deader than a doornail.
Scratch Acid, if you’re wondering, was an 80’s Austin punk band that was the forerunner of the Jesus Lizard; both bands included bassist David William Sims and singer/lunatic David Yow. There’s a legendary story about a show where Gibby Haynes, singer for the Butthole Surfers, repeatedly approached the stage between songs and demanded repayment of a two dollar loan from David Yow, receiving only a middle finger for his troubles. After about four such demands, Gibby rushes the stage and smashes a beer bottle over Yow’s head (apparently knocking him out cold) at the precise moment the band begins the next song, at which point which Gibby grabs the mic and sings. The kicker is that it was all a setup; the bottle was stage glass and the whole thing was a joke, but the whole place just goes nuts anyway.
A friend of mine who sang for Brutal Juice, a now defunct 90’s Texas band of no small acclaim in their own right, has a similar story of seeing Scratch Acid as the first frightening punk rock show he ever saw, a life changing event. Sadly, I could never tell such a story of my own, as Scratch Acid broke up in 1987.
Until now. Scratch Acid is playing two reunion shows, and one’s in Austin!
I realize I’m running the risk no replies at all here. I called my fiancee, a former Austinite, and told her the breathless news that Scratch Acid was playing a reunion show and wasn’t that incredible, and I might have well have told her my old college buddy Kangeroo McJabberstein was in town. So far I can’t find a single person paralyzed at the magnitude of the event, but I hold out hope that there might be somebody out there who has some idea of what the hell I’m talking about. Anyone? Anyone?
