Lust Control is a trip to begin with. I mean, with songs like "The Big M" (masturbation), "Virginity Disease", and "You Make Me Puke", these guys are not middle of the road, and you might wonder if they're even traveling in the same direction as you.
Live, Lust Control, is even more of a trip. They take the stage in masks - ski masks, camo paint, desperado-style bandana. Butch has his nearly yard-long hair stuck poking through the top of his ski mask like the Mother of All Top Knots. No, Toto, we are not at an Amy Grant concert.
Second impressions: Gene needs a little more caffeine before the concert - he starts off a little slow. You can't see Bob too well back behind his kit, but he's pounding the skins to death - the others couldn't slow down if they wanted to. Bradford and Butch are highly animated - maybe they snitched Gene's caffeine?
These guys aren't quite the thrash version of the Monkees, but they do come complete with a beach ball for the crowd. Butch buzzes around the room like a rabid hornet, running along the backs of booths, leaping tables and customers, and runningamuck in the loft.
The first time I heard them 7 or 8 months back, they were more laid back, and the concert didn't quite jive withe the music, which was sort of schizophrenic - it wanted to break out into punk or thrash, but didn't quite make it (the show was still a blast). This time, they blew the walls out.
Lyrically, they are sort of a cross between John the Baptist and a good punk/thrash band. They sing against the death culture we live in. They get about as explicit as Christians can get without being tried as heretics. They don't mess round.
Many of the songs are appropriate for Christians and others alike. They range from "Madaleine Murray Ohair on Judgement Day" to "Leave Amy Grant Alone" (which they didn't do at this gig with its large secular audience who would have responded with a resounding, ``Huh?'') to "Virginity Disease" (the only VD worth having) to "Victim of Revolution" (anarchy leads to misery).
They have a song about having great sex all you want ("Get Married"). If no other group in Christian music has sung about it, they probably have.
One of the high points of the night for me was a new song, which Gene introduced as ``Rush Limbaugh's Worst Blind Date" - "Feminazi"''. These guys aren't afraid of anything or anybody. They are about as politically correct as Jesus was in the eyes of the Pharisees. They're hysterical, and they're dead serious.
Who What -------- ------ Bradford Guitar Bob Drums Butch Bass Gene Vocals