| swearing at motorists |
BANDLIVESTUDIOWEBSTORE |
march 15, 2002 - austin, tx - the ritz
from hybrid
Someone better phone-up old Pete Townsend and let him know his replacement has arrived. And not only is he every bit as explosive, he's every bit as destructive. In one of the most incendiary performances of the entire festival, Swearing At Motorist frontman Dave Doughman took Townsend's trademark destructo persona a few steps further. This guy has a fire in his belly like Townsend had in the glory days. Only Doughman doesn't break guitars on-stage, he breaks members of the audience--literally.
The Motorists, Doughman and drummer Joey Siwinski took the stage promptly at 1am upstairs at the Ritz. The setting was perfectly creepy for the impending devastation that the Dayton, Ohio-by-way-of-Philadelphia-based band had in store. With the Ohio flag, in all it's glory, serving as their backdrop and the whole dank "upstairs-porno-theater" vibe of the Ritz, Doughman and Siwinski commenced to completely beat the living shit out of the crowd for better than 45 minutes. Over the course of the set, Doughman manhandled his way through old favorites from Number Seven Uptown as well as several new songs from the forthcoming EP, Along The Inclined Plane.
With all the fervor of a southern Baptist preacher at a big tent revival meeting and the unpredictability of a serial killer, Doughman played like a man who was either recently possessed or recently liberated. In his introduction to "Calgon Take Me Away", Doughman was his usual entertaining self. "Ladies and Gentleman, if you believe in soap operas," said Doughman. "Then you're a fucking chump." He also went out of his way to let everyone know how grateful he is to have Siwinski on board. (Last year, original drummer, Don Thrasher left the band--or more accurately Doughman--high and dry prior to a Canadian tour. Suffice to say, Sewinsky more than makes up for the absence of Thrasher with the sheer power of his drumming.) Prior to introducing "This Flag Signals Goodbye" a member of the audience beckoned the Motorists to play "one more" to which Doughman replied, "Fuck one more, we're playing forever more." As if the crowd hadn't already been worked into enough of a frenzy, Doughman ended the set by throwing his guitar into the capacity crowd. As you've probably deduced by now, at least one member of the audience left bruised and bloodied and is probably "Swearing At Doughman" as I write this.
— Dave Herrera
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