You don’t dare look away.
Not with all the thrashing up front, the flying limbs and saliva. Not while David Yow is howling.
The singer of The Jesus Lizard looks absolutely feral on stage, aggressively stomping, frothing a little at the mouth, pacing the confines of his space through the bass and guitar hooks with a focused determination like a caged predator just waiting for an open door.
At least, mostly he does. Sometimes he prances like some kind of depraved court jester consumed with some sort of interpretive dance. But mostly, feral.
The Jesus Lizard unleashed some 23 songs on a Union Transfer gravid with grateful fans last Friday evening. Still the original lineup they started with almost 40 years ago in Austin, Yow and co. haven’t changed much since the last time the seminal indie noise-rockers played Philly five years ago, at the same venue. Yow still stutters, stammers, snarls into his mic. He’s still furious, frenetic, still frothing with hate for the president-elect. And at 64, now, he still launches himself spontaneously off the stage and into a crowd from whom a security crew that clearly hadn’t anticipated the antics will be tasked with wresting him back.
Between songs, Yow addressed the crowd. “Keep on screamin’ and yellin’, and shit.” At first, it’s more of plea, a post-hardcore frontman’s throwaway equivalent of a player waving his arms on a football field to amp up the fans. “Keep on screamin’ and yellin’, and shit!” he repeated, more insistently the next time, launching into new material.
That’s the one thing that has changed since last time they were here – in fact, since Y2K: for the first time in over 25 years, The Jesus Lizard are touring behind a new studio album, Rack, released this past September, selections from which comprised a full third of their set on Friday.
At some point, Yow’s mantra became a directive. “Is this the special class? Okay. I’m the teacher. And you’re the fuckin’ morons! Keep on screamin’ and yellin’ and shit!,” demanded Yow, squaring off more confrontationally with the faithful down in front – the ones who got there extra-early to squeeze up against the barricade, waving vinyl newly purchased from the merch booth out front.
Less fortunate though were those who arrived too late to catch openers Cold Court, who might arguably be defined as one of the most exciting young bands out of Philly right now. Defining their music, though, is less easy to do. Fronted by brothers Mini and Jojo on guitar and vocals, Cold Court warmed the gathering crowd with a set of something that toggled between Gil Scott Heron’s spoken word, to the post-punk of IDLES, and for kicks they even added some sax. They can perpetrate steady blues-rock riffs, execute well-placed prog-rock keyboard glissandos, and even summon Cobain’s best guttural howls from In Utero.
The Jesus Lizard wraps up it 2024 tour tonight at Saturn in Birmingham, Alabama; it picks up early next month with a UK run. Full dates can be found here.