Recap Killdozer at High Noon Saloon

Just before the reunited noise-rock legends of Madison’s Killdozer began sawing into the audience with “Cotton Balls” Friday night at the High Noon Saloon, a bespectacled fortysomething in a blazer and cargo shorts elbowed The A.V. Club and said, “25 years ago everyone in the scene used to say, ‘These guys are so fucking awful that they’re good.'” And trust us, the validity of that old scenester’s statement got a steroid shot when the rancid trio began raping Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” at half speed as bassist-vocalist Michael Gerald drunkenly growled what may have been the lyrics. However, it’s Killdozer’s ability to smash conventional rock ’n’ roll into a bloody pulp with a sledgehammer of demented lyrics, shrill guitar overdrive, and screeching feedback that helped set the stage for the pummeling sonic masochism of bands like the Butthole Surfers and The Jesus Lizard.

Gerald—who is actually much smaller than his sneering grunts would lead listeners to believe—often stood up on an old trunk that was set up in front of his mic stand to “sing.” The huge audience ate up every word of “The Puppy” as Gerald howled out his darkly amusing narrative: “My lady’s name is Lois, I love it when she sucks my dink / When we set Sonny’s balls on fire, she didn’t even blink.” Original guitarist Bill Hobson wore a golden cape and sombrero onstage, shaking his sweaty, bald head as he ripped and tore every twisted note from his guitar. Additionally, guitarist Paul Zagoras—who actually replaced Hobson on guitar in 1993—joined the band for most of the set, doubling the nasty sonic wall with his jagged riffing. Drummer Dan Hobson sported a creepy Hawaiian-style shirt and khakis as he hammered into the powerfully sparse rhythms of tracks like “Cyst” and the fucked “Man Of Meat.” Killdozer’s set pulled generously across its entire discography—from 1984’s Intellectuals Are The Shoeshine Boys Of The Ruling Elite to 1995’s God Hears The Pleas Of The Innocent.

Just as the foursome was wrapping up its set, Bill Hobson’s amp began smoking. So when the band came out for its first encore (the awesomely horrid Lynyrd Skynyrd cover mentioned before), Zagoras sat out. By this point, Gerald appeared to be smashed as he stumbled and kicked about the stage in his boots: “That smoke actually came from my ass,” he declared. After “Sweet Home Alabama,” the band walked offstage and the sound man started playing music through the P.A.—but the crowd wouldn’t stop cheering and yelling for Killdozer to come back to deliver more audio abuse. The music was cut off and the band returned for a second encore. “Shut the fuck up, assholes,” Gerald yelled before the band launched into a delightfully sloppy rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Run Through The Jungle.” While the lengthy covers can be hilariously torturous to stand through (save for an actually sweet cover of Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl”), the band proved that it can still pack tons of transgressive attitude and raw energy into its mangled blues-rock, and that hundreds of old fans will still jump around and dump beer on each other as it happens.