HE PUT HIS DRUMSTICK WHERE?? - revisitng playing with one of the most infamous bands of all time

Last summer, we had the odd experience of playing with one of the top 5 most infamous bands of all time - The Murder Junkies. We were asked to play the 4 band bill by the owner of The Roxglass in Cave City, KY. Would we play with The Murder Junkies again? No.

Quick backstory for those who don’t know - “The Murder Junkies” were originally known as “GG Allin and The Murder Junkies”. GG Allin is probably the most controversial musician in history. Truly. He’s dead now. Heroin overdose. I’m not trying to be overly crass when speaking the facts, but if you read about things that G.G. Allin did, you’d understand that there wouldn’t be much positive to say in his memory. Google it because I don’t really want to type it out here. It’s gross and shocking.

The sad backstory is that GG and his brother, Merle Allin, grew up in an incredibly dangerous household. Abuse was extremely present between father and sons, and many speculate that the extreme abuse molded the personality and behavior of both sons - especially GG. One obvious example of the shicking upbringing is the fact that GG’s legal name was actually Jesus Christ Alin. He was given this name because his father told his wife that Jesus Christ had visited him in a dream and told him that his newborn son would be a great man in the vein of the Messiah. During early childhood, Allin's older brother, Merle, was unable to pronounce "Jesus" properly and called him “GG.” The rest of their upbringing was filled with abuse, religious psychosis and depravity. After their mother divorced from their birthfather, the boys turned to drugs and criminal activity. 

Obviously, since GG passed, Merle has taken the reins and continued to tour with the band off and on in the decades since his brother’s overdose.

You’re probably asking “Why did we agree to play?” The first answer is if GG Alin was still alive, we wouldn’t have. We did a pretty extensive deep dive into the current state of The Muder Junkies before agreeing to play with them. Youtube videos, reddit threads, lots of social media that would have pretty easily led us to finding something that would make us not want to play the show. The general consensus was that they just play a normal rock show. No uncomfortable antics, no crazy messaging (outside of the song lyrics), no weird, outdated, political pandering. Most importantly, none of the messed up dangerous antics that GG was known for. Yeah his brother was in the band, but this was a separate entity. There’s also a documentary online about the complicated legacy of G.G. It’s basically narrated by Merle, and really emphasizes that Merle loved his brother despite the numerous controversies throughout his career and just wants the world to move on and let GG rest in peace. Essentially, the upside was making new fans and getting a play a venue where we have a great built-in crowd. There wasn’t much of a downside due to lack of controversy in the band’s performances over the past 2+ decades.

Going into the show, there WAS some annoying controversy that we weren’t involved in. The concert poster that was sent to us by the venue was apparently A.I. generated. We weren’t informed of this by the venue and we had to make a last minute change to our promo material due to the outcry (sometimes, being in a band can be exhausting). Luckily, the other Nashville band on the bill, Cumshot Wound, had made a backup poster to help everyone out. Here’s the non A.I. poster:

A few days before the show, I reached out to the Roxglass about gear. I know that the venue was being renovated, and they were upgrading their stage, but I didn’t know if the upgrades included a house drum kit or bass amp (these pieces of gear are pretty common for venues to have in order to make the load in easier for touring bands). We were told to bring all gear (drums and bass amp included).

Julian’s kit was in the shop, so I didn’t mind letting him use my kit for the show.

Once the dust had settled from the poster mess and the day of the show had come, we all hopped in our cars and drove to Cave City - just over an hour from Nashville.

Vincent got to the venue first. While he had been sitting at the bar, he had been informed of the weird situation we found ourselves in:

The members of Murder Junkies didn’t have a place to sleep. They didn’t have money for food. They didn’t really have instruments. They needed to use my drum kit (“fine” I said), but they also had to sleep at the owner of the bar’s house, he had to buy them food, and the band and entire backline. This meant that they had to borrow amps, drums, and a few cables - essentially they came with their instruments and expected everyone else to provide everything without asking. They only brought guitars and a crappy van to drive.

I’d consider myself more than fair and accommodating. If you need to borrow gear, fine. Also, gear tends to fail at the worst times, so if someone needs to borrow something in case of emergency, I’m happy to provide it. However, a touring band that gets a guarantee expecting to use my gear without asking beforehand is wrong. I was starting to kick myself for expecting anything else, but whatever.

We were scheduled to play 2nd after Spinal Fluid, which was fine. It was a 4 band bill, and we’d have time to decompress and sell merch afterwards.

Before the show started, I was talking to Garrett and Dalton from Cumshot Wound - they were extremely excited about the show and making new fans, but they added the caveat that getting added to the bill was difficult. Apparently Murder Junkies preferred not to play with bands who have women in them? This was news to me, and I was disappointed to hear that this was the case - especially when women have become extremely prevalent and successful in punk/metal music (Spiritbox, Poppy, Amyl and The Sniffers to name a few great bands/artists).

…

The 4-band show kicked off and Spinal Fluid was great. It was an awesome mix and blast beats, screaming, and energy.

We were up next. I was a little worried about how we’d be perceived. We aren’t a band that bombards that audience with 2 minute hardcore punk songs. Luckily, we were reminded quickly after our first song (“Dopamine”) that we have a built-in crowd at The Roxglass, and we can put on a great show even when we are the black sheep of the bill in terms of genre. 

There’s not much to say about our set outside of the fact that it went great, so I’ll simply share some photos below: *all photos taken by Cass Terhune (IG: trashrats_tn)

After that came Cumshot Wound. We had actually played with them the week before, so we knew what to expect. It was a great show of hardcore punk anthems filled with tongue in cheek sexual innuendos.

Finally was the moment that everyone was waiting for: The Murder Junkies. 

The band got set up on stage with amps and drums from the previous bands and got ready to play.

The show kicked off, and it was good! Classic power chord punk rock with lots of energy. They were probably the least heavy band of the bunch. I’d imagine that this had a lot to do with their age. 

Admittedly, as the night wore on, the songs kind of became background noise. I couldn’t understand what the singer was saying, and a lot of the songs started to blend together. The adrenaline crash was starting to hit, and I went to go sit at the bar to give my legs a break and have a beer.

After a few more songs, I was ready to leave. Not out of disrespect for the band, but compared to the high energy sets from Spinal Fluid and Cumshot Wound, Murder Junkies were starting to get boring. It was well past 10pm (maybe 11pm?) and we still needed to pack our gear, drive home, and wake up for work the next morning.

Additionally, looking at the members of Murder Junkies was kind of a sad sight. Good for them that they were still playing, but their drummer, Dino, looked gassed. In accordance with the tradition of the band, he was wearing nothing but skimpy underwear (maybe a thong). It was a jarring sight, but one I could live with knowing the background of the band and having seen recent videos online. He looked to be in his 70’s, and he couldn’t keep much of a tempo. Merle looked gassed. And the other 2 members looked less passionate about the songs compared to the beginning of the set an hour previously.

Finally, the singer called out that the last song had come. I don’t remember what it sounded like. The key moment of the night came at the end of the song. The song ended, and the drummer, Dino, started playing a drum solo. While I would normally be intrigued by this, I stayed at the bar due to secondhand embarrassment. Again, Dino is older, but the drum solo was…incoherent. It sounded like  an excited child who sat behind the drum kit for the first time and was told to play to their heart’s content. Just…hitting things. No pattern, rhyme, or reason.

After a LONG 60 seconds, the drum solo ended, and the crowd gave the loudest applause since Muder Junkies began their set.

I looked away, finished my beer, and asked the bartender to close my tab.

When I turned back toward the stage, much to my surprise, the drummer hopped back behind my drum kit and…played another “solo.” 

I’m not going to lie. I was exhausted and annoyed at this point. This wasn’t a display of talent. This was - as Vincent eloquently put it after the show - elder abuse.

After about 45 more seconds of bad drumming, the solo ended, along with the MJ set and show. Thank God.

I hopped out of my bar stool and walked up towards the stage. I was heading over to my drum kit to start tearing them down and packing them up.

“Hold on! Hold on!” Julian, our drummer, yelled while stopping me in my tracks. “Let me grab some disinfectant spray from the bar and then I’ll break those drums down.”

“Dude, what are you talking about?” I asked.

“Did you not see what happened at the end when the drummer was playing his solo?” he responded.

“Uh no…what the heck happened?”

“The drummer had someone from the crowd shove drumsticks up his ass! And then he went back on the kit and finished his drum solo with those same sticks.”

“...ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING ME?? THAT’S MY DRUMKIT!!!”

“Look, I asked you if we could use your kit for this show. That’s the reason your drums are here. I’ll clean them off, pack them up, take them to my house and then clean them off again.”

“Fine. Obviously, clean them off well. Can’t believe it.”

…

So, no folks. I would not recommend playing a show with The Murder Junkies. 

The only saving grace is that Merle was very nice to us. He has a well documented love for horror movies and horror movie paraphernalia, so I had the chance to ask him the one thing after the show that I was always really curious about. Not “what’s the craziest show you’ve ever played?” Not “what’s it like dealing with fans that over-romanticize your brother’s death?”

I asked, “What’s your favorite horror movie of all time?”

After 5 seconds of internal debate he responded with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The original one, obviously.”

There you have it, folks.

As always, thanks for reading!