Snaut Plays Ichabod’s North, So Watch Out For Raunchy Stunts
Snaut is lucky our founding fathers wrote something called the First Amendment.
Without it, the band might have remained just a thought in the tweaked minds of vocalist Willard T.F. Wallabie and guitarist Gator McClusky.
Aside from the band’s raunchy musical barrage, Snaut’s juvenile stage stunts bulldoze the barrier between free expression and bad taste.
For the last five years, Snaut has been on a mission to roil up more controversy than a year’s worth of tabloid news shows.
The band once called a contingent of Hell’s Angels, which showed up to a gig, “Charlie’s Angels,” and nearly got beat up for it. In 1992, the band threw chicken feet and dog food from its St. Patrick’s Day parade float at spectator families. Snaut has had strippers join the band on stage. The Idaho State Patrol even showed up at a Snaut’s concert in North Idaho last year with Quiet Riot and accused the band of killing animals on stage.
And the list goes on.
“The whole concept of the band since day one has been negative publicity,” says Wallabie. “Everything we’ve done to try to be good and try to be nice guys has done nothing for us.
“The truth is, we’ve gotten more publicity from the (expletive) that we’ve done. We got killer write-ups for having a naked dwarf running around on stage. We’ve gotten banned from every club in Spokane.”
Snaut plays at Ichabod’s North tonight. If it holds true to form for Snaut’s other local gigs, tonight’s parade will likely be Snaut’s last.
So what if Tipper Gore, queen of the Parents’ Music Resource Center, shows up at one of the band’s shows tonight?
“To be honest, I wish I had something clever to say. I just really wouldn’t say anything to her. If I was on stage and she was in the audience, you know I’d take advantage of it and go off.
By the way, Tipper will be on the band’s guest list.
“There’s bands that will do whatever it takes to get people to look at them,” explains Wallabie. “Sometimes people look at them because they’re a great band and that’s all they need. But we weren’t a great band when we started out. We never cared about being a great band.
“It’s just all publicity. I’ll do anything I can do to get people to take a look,” he says.
In some ways, the band’s politically incorrect goal has worked.
Most people who brave the band’s shows do it because it’s like watching a freak show with loud metallic guitars. Plus, on stage, Snaut is reliably unpredictable.
In five years, Snaut has gone through a ridiculous 27 members. And that doesn’t include the ones who were kicked out twice. Only Wallabie and McClusky have been constants.
Now it seems Snaut, rounded out by drummer Jim Elvidge and bassist Chip Roberts, has finally settled on a lineup, and will actually get serious about its music.
The band will record its follow-up to the CD “Polvos de Odio” (Spanish for “Dust of Hate”) in the next couple of months.
Worm Drive and Soloman Kane open. Noise at 9:30 p.m. Cover’s $3.
Bay Area Junk at Ugly Rumors
Junk, a collective of San Francisco jazz musicians, will waft its atmospheric and funky instrumentals from the elevated stage of the Mars Hotel’s Ugly Rumors on Easter Sunday.
Although Junk churns out mind-altering instrumentals, don’t call the group “acid jazz.” The members of the combo hate that term. In fact, Junk lashes out at lazy music critics who have slapped the band with that tag: they named their sophomore effort “Kiss My Acid Jazz.”
Junk’s hybridization of improvisational music and funk roams the fringe of contemporary jazz. Some compositions like “Devolution” lull in a dreamy and droning fashion. Others, such as “Operation Funk,” funk around with spunky bass lines that would make the almighty Bootsy Collins shake his booty.
Junk introduced its elusive unparalleled stew to a receptive Spokane crowd last summer. Sunday marks Junk’s third trip to Spokane.
Junk will give two performances, one at 3:30 p.m. and the other at 9 p.m. Tickets are $6 for the matinee, $8 for the evening show and are available at the Mars Hotel.
Fuming rock at Ichabod’s
The Fumes kick off their three-week long tour with Austin’s low-fi garage punkers the Motards this weekend in Seattle.
On their way to Missoula, Boise and Denver, the two groups will play Ichabod’s North on Tuesday.
The Motards recently subjected themselves to the industry clogged South-By-Southwest music seminar in Austin. They have a new album out called “Rock Kids” on eMpTy Records.
The Seattle-based label just let loose the dizzying new Fumes album, “Self-Appointed Guardian of the Machine.”
Music starts at 9:30 p.m. The cover is $3.
Acid rock
Veteran Seattle rock band Jackie on Acid plays Outback Jack’s on Saturday.
The female-fronted unit will put out its second album, “Moink,” later this month on the London-based label Blue Rose. The record features eight new songs and three updated versions of songs that appeared on the band’s debut, “Singularity.”
Plug Ugly and Jack Salad open the show, at 9:30 p.m. The cover is $3.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: NIGHTWATCH PICKS Best bets at area clubs: TONIGHT: Snaut, Worm Hole and Solomon Kane at Ichabod’s North SATURDAY: Jackie on Acid, Plug Ugly and Jack Salad at Outback Jack’s SUNDAY: Junk at Ugly Rumors TUESDAY: The Fumes and the Motards at Ichabod’s North