ATP NY '09: The Jesus Lizard

by Pop Tarts Suck Toasted on Tue, 2009/09/15 - 4:30pm Post to Twitter

As fun as all the other bands had been on day one the real reason we all wanted to be there was to see the reformed version of The Jesus Lizard tearing everyone a new asshole. Sure enough that is exactly what we got on Friday as David Yow walked out, yelled "Happy 9/11 everybody!", and leapt into the crowd as the opening bars of "Puss" began to flood the venue.
From there the band’s hour long set was a non-stop sea of stage divers and crowd surfers assaulting the heads, arms, and bodies of the crowd while the band assaulted our ears with their heavy mix of metal and punk. It’s a visceral, aggressive form of music and the audience definitely had the testosterone pumping as the pit began swaying almost immediately. As most photographers dashed for cover the mosh pit and crowd surfers took over the front of the stage with Yow leading them on by diving in and growling to them all the while. The music charged on the band playing a set spanning their career and really throwing their all into it.

Yow continued to play the aggressor throughout the set, continuously shouting "Happy 9//1 day everybody!" after each song, giving people in the crowd the finger, and leaping on top of us. But as the show wore on more and more stage divers became brazen enough to approach You and yell or takeover his mic for a brief second before leaping back into the crowd. Even Randy Randall of No Age joined in on the fun attempting to rip Yow’s shirt from his body. Yow didn’t give it up though and stood his ground for another song or two before the band’s set was done.

The Jesus Lizard were always known for these kinds of performances so it shouldn’t have been surprising to anyone who has seen them, but following sets by Iron & Wine and Panda Bear it felt a little weird to be thrust into a mosh pit with crowd surfers everywhere, but it was a hell of a lot of fun too!