heART on Center
David Yow simply missed being with his friend. The frontman for ’90s college-radio darlings The Jesus Lizard makes it clear that he had no burning desire to play the old tracks he and the rest of the band wrote back in the days before the Internet. There was no internal call to get back on stage in front of the aging masses looking to reclaim a piece of their youth. Hell, he didn’t even really need the money.
What Yow pined for was to play in a band with his old pal Mac McNeilly holding down the beat behind him. McNeilly, an original TJL member, left the outfit in 1997 before their final album, Blue, was recorded. For Yow, things within in the group were never the same again, and after McNeilly’s successor was replaced in 1998, TJL officially disbanded a year later.
Since then, there have been plenty of invitations for TJL to reconfigure, but Yow’s heart just hasn’t been in it knowing McNeilly was on the sidelines.
However, when freak-rock auteur Mike Patton, curator of the 2008 version of All Tomorrow’s Parties, asked the original lineup to get together last summer in the United Kingdom, McNeilly was willing, which got Yow excited. Unfortunately, the timing wasn’t right for that gig, but the offer set the foundation for this year’s reunion tour, which is currently 18 shows strong and looks to be expanding to more than 30.
“I’m just incredibly excited to be playing with Mac and hanging out with him again,” Yow said. “I mean, I was totally out of contact with him for the past 12 years, so it has really been something special to reconnect. I still see David [Sims, bass] and Duane [Denison, guitar] regularly, so that’s not as big of a deal, but being with Mac is just tremendous.”
As has been the case with the latest slew of returning underground-rock heroes of yore—Pixies, Kraftwerk, et. al.—the popularity of TJL has vastly surpassed what it was back in the band’s heyday. Internet chatter has been rampant following each show as excited fans new and old wax on about the performances. Chalk it up to mystique, nostalgia or both, but Yow and company have been surprised by what they’ve encountered. This is not just a stateside phenomenon, either. Fans of all ages have crawled out from all corners of the globe to get a taste of the live show
“I figured that the reissues Touch and Go [the band’s former record label] have been working on might spark some sort of interest, but what we’ve seen has been way beyond any of our expectations,” Yow said. “Just the guarantees that promoters have been willing to pay us have been pretty incredible…. I can’t explain it.”
In their first incarnation, TJL was hailed for energetic performances rife with spastic guitars and throbbing rhythms accompanied by shotgun vocals and sometimes shocking and unpredictable antics from Yow (it wasn’t uncommon for him expose certain parts of his anatomy). In their older age, the energy remains just as potent, though, Yow says, it’s derived as much from the audience as it is from the stage.
“Every show has been more fun than the one before it…. It’s just been a blast,” he said. “We played recently in Torino, Italy, and 35 minutes before we even went out, the crowd was screaming for us, and they stayed like that for the entire night.”
While the rekindled friendships and passions have been something the entire band has thrived on, Yow warns that those hoping for more shouldn’t expect a prolonged presence. There are no plans to write or record new material, and he all but guarantees that after the final shows this year, that’s the last anyone will see of TJL.
Yow’s focused on his current project, Los Angeles experimental outfit Qui. The group’s been a mainstay in and around Los Angeles for the better part of the last decade, and the singer believes they’re just now beginning to hit their stride.
“I’ve dedicated some time to Qui now, and I really feel like we are starting to do some cool things,” he said. “With everything that I write these days, I have them in mind…. I don’t think it would be fair to divert any of that energy toward a new Jesus Lizard record, and I don’t really want to.”
The reunion hasn’t been about rehashing old memories or trying to relight an extinguished flame—the purpose was to play with his old friends one last time and then move on.
“Beyond being with the guys again and having fun playing together, it’s kind of something that we’ve all been there and done,” he said. “I think that all of us are ready for something new after this.”
The Jesus Lizard’s Oct. 14 show at The Casbah is sold out. www.thejesuslizard.net.
