Muffed Ecstasy
The Muffs/The Queers/Cub
Urban Art Bar, Houston, Texas
August 10, 1995
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in the Public News, August 9, 1995? That seems wrong, but it's what my copy says...
Some observations about the Muffs, made at Urban Art Bar last Thursday:
1) Singer/guitarist/songwriter Kim Shattuck sure likes to spit.
2) Bass player Ronnie Barnett sure likes abuse, preferably from Shattuck. Some of her expectoration was aimed at him, and she called him a wuss at least once.
3) Drummer Roy MacDonald sure likes to throw stuff. He ejected drumsticks high into the air on numerous occasions. Sometimes he caught them. Usually not. Anybody braving the bayou behind the stage of the Wailing Wall-esque Urban Art Bar was probably treated to a small forest of Real Drumsticks Used By A Real Band At A Real Gig alongside the drum head that I saw inexplicably go flying during the middle of a song.
4) Shattuck isn't that much of a singer, but she sure can scream like there's no tomorrow. Her howls come across better live.
5) The clincher: they're a pop band that likes punk, rather than vice versa. The distortion of their superb Blonder And Blonder didn't rear it's overdriven head, and I found myself listening to the melodies rather than let the power of the sound take over.
This last discovery disappointed those of us who expected a massive roar rather than safe purring. That, and Shattuck's indifference to the performance. There was an air of contempt in the place, a feeling that Shattuck, dressed in maternity gear with her twin bleached pony-tail horns, just didn't give a shit about us.
This was self-defense, maybe, since a lot of the crowd was there for second-rate punkers the Queers. Opening band Cub were damn near booed off the stage despite showing a little spark up there. They weren't perfect, but they might be on their way. They handled their hecklers well enough, perhaps realizing that a few idiots can be loud enough to drown out the nice folks.
The Muffs didn't do so well. The performance was fine, and if they hadn't left the stage in what seemed like a hurry, I'm sure my hindsight wouldn't be tinted and I'd've just thought that they were just trying to be amusing. When they trashed the stage and Shattuck left in what sure looked like a huff, however, I kept wondering what we, as an audience, had done to piss her off.