CENTERSTAGE
Back when your grandpa was a young man, Tristan Tzara wrote “...from now on we want to shit in different colors so as to adorn the zoo of art with all the flags of all the consulates.” Tzara was the spokesman of the Dadaist art movement which was based on deliberate irrationality and negation of traditional artistic values.
CENTERSTAGE
DEPARTMENTS
DADA DOO-DOO
BUTTHOLE SURFERS The Graystone, Detroit _May 24, 1986_
Dave Segal
Back when your grandpa was a young man, Tristan Tzara wrote “...from now on we want to shit in different colors so as to adorn the zoo of art with all the flags of all the consulates.” Tzara was the spokesman of the Dadaist art movement which was based on deliberate irrationality and negation of traditional artistic values. He would’ve loved the Butthole Surfers, four LSD-gobblers from the great state of Texas.
Truth is, no band today better embodies the spirit of Dada than do the Surfers, though they probably couldn’t give a flea’s fart about art theories. The Surfers simply do their Dadaistic thing on the road nearly all year round. They work harder than James Brown and Sammy Davis, Jr. combined.
A typical Surfers performance assaults and tickles your eyes and ears. Disembodied taped voices, rapidly pulsating lights, fake smoke and the coolest psychedelic guitar sounds since the 13th Floor Elevators induce a state of mind that might occur if one were to smoke Elvis Presley’s toenails.