‘The Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt’ will be shown at 8:30 p.m. on April 26 at the Somerville Theater. Director Tom Stern, writer Simon Weinstein, and producers Scott Evans and Derrick Rossi are expected to attend.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
Part of the Independent Film Festival Boston that runs through April 30, “Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt” aka “The Butthole Surfers Movie” manages to capture the drugged, drunken, sexually outrageous, audience-endangering, close to chaotic nature of the band’s legendary live performances. As rock docs go, the film definitely falls into the usual pattern: the start at the bottom, in this case early 1980s San Antonio, Texas, the rise to fame (yes) and fortune (well, not quite), and then the messy descent into sex and drug-driven insanity, including a shootout in Johnny Depp’s shower involving imaginary spiders. It’s all there, including the notorious lady from the New York City peeps as your naked go-go dancer.
Director Tom Stern, a force in the modern comedy scene, has assembled an impressive cast of characters, beginning with most, if not all, band members (they had nine bass players after all). On the list, we have both surviving (and non-surviving members) of the Butthole Surfers and their extended “family,” although one might describe them all as inmates of Butthole Asylum.
The film begins with a warning about “puppet violence” and other video nastiness that might offend sensitive viewers. This will include visions of drunk and tripping Butthole vocalist Gibby Haynes running circles onstage in (and out of) a dress. The film tries as hard as it can to make you feel like you’re attending a Butthole Surfers’ performance. It even gives you the finger.
Stern displays versatility that we don’t often see in rockumentaries. He and cowriter Simon Weinstein try to recreate the “Butthole experience,” to coin a phrase, by breathing life into the interviews and recreating the band’s sometimes violent, psychedelic and sordid history, using different film-making techniques (interviews, archival footage, still photos mixed with CGI, puppetry and animation). It’s an impressive display and an interesting way for the artists behind the camera to show us what attracted them to the Butthole Surfers to begin with. I’d say Stern is an honorary Butthole Surfer. But there is not much honor in them. In fact, the head of their first label does not speak to them.
The first Butthole Surfer band orbited around two suns: gifted guitarist Paul Leary and 6-foot, 7-inch vocalist and lyricist Haynes, two young men who had chemistry and shared an enthusiasm for Abstract Expressionism, the Ventures and vintage photographs of the ravages of venereal disease.
Also recruited were first bassist Scott Stevens, drummer King Coffey, and fellow drummer Teresa Nervosa. Veterans of Fort Worth and Austin marching bands, the two notably played in unison in front of stand-up drum kits. Before they took the Butthole Surfer sobriquet, the band was known by such tags as Ashtray Baby Heads and Playtex Butt Agamemnons. Academy Award-nominated actor John Hawkes describes the band’s “maelstrom of sound.” We hear from Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins, ditto for Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra. RuPaul once go-go danced for the band at an Atlanta drag club.
Among other admirers interviewed are actor David Yow, rapper Ice-T, comic Eric Andre, and fellow musicians Dave Grohl and Flea. Also in the film is Texas filmmaker and five-time Oscar nominee Richard Linklater, who was the band’s first projectionist after they started playing films on the stage behind them (a technique Andy Warhol pioneered for the Velvet Underground).
What does the band take from its Texas origins? The answer is a need to secede and a fondness for Austin, Texas punk rock and Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” Cue the clips. As Teresa talks on the phone with her mother, they transform into Muppet like puppets without warning. Even after initial success, the band still slept on floors and moved into recently unoccupied motel rooms to shower ahead of the maids. It’s all here, including the drugs. The band reunites to record a cover of Donovan’s 1969 tune “Atlantis.” It becomes a hit in the Netherlands. Nirvana once opened for the Butthole Surfers. Not long afterwards, the roles switched. Cue “That’s Life.” The film is a trip.
“The Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt’ will be shown at 8:30 p.m. on April 26 at the Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Square. Director Tom Stern, writer Simon Weinstein, and producers Scott Evans and Derrick Rossi are expected to attend a post-screening question-and-answer.
‘The Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt’
Not Rated, nudity, simulated sex, drug use, profanity, violence
Cast: Gibby Haynes, Paul Leary, Teresa Nervosa, Richard Linklater
Director: Tom Stern
Writers: Stern and Simon Weinstein
Running Time: 110 minutes
Where to Watch: Somerville Theater
Grade: A-
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