Evolution in Action: The Jesus Lizard

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IN SEPTEMBER, the Jesus Lizard played its first show in a decade, and David Yow was so nervous he was throwing up. It seems like an incongruous idea — one of rock's most dynamic frontmen suffering stage fright — but as soon as the music started, Yow "was more on autopilot than ever.

"I had planned on not taking my shirt off, but 15 seconds into the set, my shirt was off and I was in the audience. Swear to God, I didn't do that. It just took me."

Formed in 1987, the Jesus Lizard developed a reputation for extreme and energetic live shows, with Yow prowling the stage shirtless as the band — drummer Mac McNeilly, guitarist Duane Denison and bass player David Sims — pounded out the sludgiest punk-metal riffs imaginable.

While their shows may be aggressive, the atmosphere is celebratory rather than confrontational. "I don't want to fight with anybody," Yow explains. "I want everybody there to be happier than they've ever been."

Since the band's breakup in the late 1990s, Yow has fielded many offers for reunion shows, but says he wasn't interested. It was a request from his friend Mike Patton of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle who finally got the original four members back in the same room.

Yow admits that the experience has been "way, way, way cooler than anyone ever imagined. Just hanging out with them has been a blast. I think we play better than we did before. I know we're uglier."

Even so, after the band's last scheduled show — on New Year's Eve — Yow hopes they go their separate ways again. "I honestly don't think we will ever do anything else, and I hope that we don't," he says, "but I've learned to quit saying never."

» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; with Noveller, Thu., Nov. 19, 7 p.m., $25; 800-955-5566. (U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Stephen M. Deusner
Photo courtesy Joshua Black Wilkins