From: "G.D M" <gmurphy2001@hotmail.com>
Subject: REVIEW: PFP, 06/19/96 San Francisco, CA, Trocadero Transfer
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 19:15:51 +0000
PORNO FOR PYROS : 06/19/96 San Francisco, CA, Trocadero Transfer
Ah, erm anyone ever heard of a drug called MDMA, aka: ECSTACY??
PFP may just have! More on this later..
The imfamous Trocadero Transfer, a famous late 70's disco-this venue has
survived primarily due to a large amount of punk-rock "Thrasher Promotions"
type bookings. This was a weird show to find out about- If I remember
correctly the "Fillmore" date (one night previous) had already gone
on sale
and the date initially was supposed to be a second night at the Fillmore
that got switched to the Transfer due to scheduling conflicts at the
Fillmore.When I got the tickets at "Bass" I went up to the window
thinking I
was getting Fillmore tickets for the first night and then got news about the
Trocadero, the smaller size and got tix for this show instead.
So we arrive at the show-and this place was totally small. A simple square
floor plan with a large stage and a weird staircase at the back of the stage
that led to the dressing rooms. The Trocadero held about 450 total and they
did not over-sell the venue so it was packed but comfortable. CORNERSHOP
opened and they were very tight but stood totally still onstage while
playing. After Cornershop finished the DJ played some techno and played this
song (indulge me)that kept going "Acid Funk, Acid Funk,..California Acid
we
don't need no 303's" anyone know what cut this was??
Anyway, the set break after Cornershop was already over an hour long- I was
worried that something was up. Eventually another 30 minutes later the
lights dimmed and PFP started walking down to the stage from the rear-stage
staircase.
THEY LOOKED TOTALLY, COMPLETELY WASTED!!
I don't mean to go on & on about this but they HAD to be on X. I remember
Perry and Steve walking over to Peter and giving him huge hugs and for a
good two minutes they were like doing that XTC huggy, feely thing. I was
close, about two feet from the stage, and their eyes were full blown
dilated-everybody except Watt it looked like. This seemed to add up with
extra long-ass set break. The stage was cool and had an interesting twist,
I am unsure if this was norm for the God God's Urge tour, but at both sides
of the stage they had video screens set-up and during the show a guy was
ontage with a digital handi-cam shooting PFP. Those images were being shown
over the screens with very trippy fractals,spirals, and surfing footage. At
one point during Tahitian Moon the videos were just beautifuly synched with
Perry who was spotlight from underneath-just beautiful.
The show was truncated, I honestly think the chemicals had something to do
with this- going on memory there was no encore. Also, I was a bit bummed
that they did no Jane's material -I had heard they had pulled out Mountain
Song, My Time, and I would For You at various points on this tour.
Things turned a bit sour at the end of the set when the camera guy somehow
got pulled into a pit stage right and somehow dropped his camera.Some fucker
it appears stole the thing from off the floor when he dropped it.. He went
onstage making an appeal to give it back- he said it was a 2000 dollar
camera.
Perry actually reappeared onstage about 10 minutes after the shows end-came
up to the microphone and said; "Hey everybody this guy is my friend and
that
is an expensive camera" "No questions asked, just come backstage and
give me
the camera- and my friends and I will have a suprise for you".. Everybody
laughed because Perry was flanked by a huge bouncer and after he said that
the implied "suprise" seemed to be a west-coast ass-kicking..
Well, PFP exploring psychedelic San Francisco on a hot summer evening. Not
too bad, nice sized room, good performance, but the show was barely 60
minutes long....
G. Murphy