whew! here's a story i can get well fed up of telling over and over again, and a place to put it for good!

late eighties, early nineties called 'crash worship.' they seem to have a (mobile) net-presence, so do a search, might find some recordings if you like. whereas they weren't midi, they're worth a mention due to their interpretation of 'live.'

afaik, their roots are in association with zendik farm. musically consisting of several drummers (sticks, various drums, usu. worn for portability) and a 'guitarist' who usually played the strings BETWEEN THE FINGERBOARD AND THE PEGS. yes. occasionally he'd fire up a sine wave pitch generator (button, knob for pitch) used to bring a climactic rise. on one occasion, a guy wearing a giant bubble head costume used an air raid siren to 'herd' the audience. chants consisted of english and contrived 'words of power.'

after the first show, people knew what to expect.. many participants would come dressed for the occasion in CLAY. fire handlers were a constant part of the show, which was of course, never the same, but always had one common element; at some point in mid-show (after everything had been brought to a climax of tribal drumming several times) members would move through the audience dragging people down to the ground, until the entire audience is lying down, for a good five minutes of groping and squirming. (course, except for me, since i'm no sheep.. they had fire workers surrounding me and a 'devil' aping my nonconformity..)

one show midway thru a troupe prances in bearing a huge platter (like a 4'x8' board or such) with a whole roasted pig piled high with melons and fruit. hope you're not wearing anything nice..

..at that same show, i was accosted by an 'inquisitor,' wearing one of those beaked harlequin masks, a cloak and a broad brimmed hat who thrusted a metal rod into my face and.. everything goes white (makes dissapearance.) sprayed me down with vegetable fat. it went clear after a second, but there's no way you can get it off.. well, they hated psychic t.v. because of some crap so i guess that explains my clothes. dancing greased is just diff'rent, folks.

and yes, fuckers, i'm the guy who tossed that watermelon at your guitar rack. fuck you because my skin's all fucked up. and fuck your friends too :p

other points of interest: ropes were often wound into the throng.. various spirits would seek to pull an dtwist groups of people together.. watch out.. a 6' block of chewed up styrofoam they got from somewhere hurled over head.. head's up!

and this HUGE pipe! like a briar, only about 18" and packed with... ????

extremely 'violent,' though of course, with a community vibe.. so in several shows over four or five years i never saw a punch thrown or anything. participation required constant alertness and motion.. don't step on the zonked out people on the floor in the middle of the 'mosh..'

we had a cool 'promoter' in town at the time who made sure that these little miracles would happen w/o the fire marshall and such. imho this show completely redefined the role of live band as a ritual experience (life, danger, crash..)

none of us who participated will forget crash worship. big thumbs up to these guys for creating an event we will remember more as participating in as opposed to witnessing.. very important thing there!

excellent promotion: first show at the end they showered us with plastic beads - instant publicity eh.

these shows were very well planned/executed. it's worth stressing that (considering their background at zendik - a youth commune sorta thing) there was a definate sense that the experience was expertly contrived and led, from point a to z, not just a set of songs and assortment of fire tricks et c.

[Edited: 12-Apr-02  |  04:30 PM]

ah, brings back memories of Gwar covering me up with goo. goo d ole' days

xoxos - Very cool "show" from the sounds of it. Rabbbit in the Moon have a similar "theatrics" approach (worked well for Alice Cooper and Kiss, too), although a bit less involved than what you're talking. An event like you mention would require a lot of hands, and forethought to pull off consistently, but me do thinks it would be most worthwhile...

Pax

Wow, I must have gotten the Crash Worship lite experience when I saw them in Chicago in 1991 or so. There was some much needed nudity and noise, but no roasted pigs or anything like that. I'd be pissed off too if going to a show messed up my skin. I'd rather it mess up my mind, cos that I can fix.

As an aside: Also saw Kraftwerk in Chicago just a couple of years ago. I'd call it live performance art with backing music: they didn't play anything, as was obvious to my friends standing next to the sound guy, but they did robotic dances in glowing grid-painted suits and pretended to play. Cool film loops. We were let down, though, by the canned music. I could have done without high tech costumes in order to see some real interaction among the players. Conceptual art commenting on the griddiness of the modern world I guess. I can see why some folks feel the need for grease, etc.

[Edited: 15-Apr-02  |  03:19 AM]

i get a lot of that. tucson they dug special.. played every halloween, couple of other shows each year.

for the idly curious/extremely wealthy and irresponsible, some of the recorded material captured them well.

I dunno, I met those cats years ago and they all seemed too stuck on themselves like a bunch of fuckin rockstars. Yeah they did some cool stuff, but a lot of it turned gimmicky. There are folks out there doin it better. You gotta dig, but they are out there.

Ape

well, have you ever met someone who wasn't stuck to itself ? 'd love to meet them.

There are different degress, and these folks had definately reached an extreme. Nobody is that important. If you meet them, you will see. There's one guy with a goatee, round glasses, and a shaved head (last few times I've seen him), and he's cooler than the others, but even so, there's no need for anyone to be like that, not even Zappa, or James Brown.


Ape

total agreement. anyone who had it in for genesis like they did isn't being fair.

and they'd get so pissy when i threw stuff at them!!!! heh heh heh

btw that incident - undoubtedly the result of their association with one mart l. cook. we were special kids.. everybody thought we needed their special help.

i guess i'm just lucky i didn't catch on fire with that kind of help.

i hate people.

"The ability to hate implies a capacity to love"

- amusing tidbit from an infomercial for a car waxing system...

Pax