GG Allin is a punk rock legend and one of his nastier trademarks was dropping his trousers and letting loose with a bowel movement onstage. He first debuted this craptacular stage event in a town that neighbors Peoria. MBIP contributing writer, Bob Gordon was at that show and here’s his memories of that punk rock evening that ended in a blaze of brown!
Punk rocker GG Allin's appearance at the Creve Coeur VFW Hall in 1985 is one of the more extraordinary concerts in Peoria history. I was at the show which was presented by local rocker Bloody Mess which was promised to be a night to remember.
Real wild childs: GG Allin and Bloody Mess in the '80's.
Allin was from the east coast and had recorded for about ten years. Bloody corresponded with him and booked the show. At the time the Peoria punk scene was divided by straight edge kids (no booze, smokes, etc) led by the Steppe brothers and their band Caustic Defiance. Bloody and the Skabs were pure punk rock mayhem—sex, drugs and rock and roll.
Caustic Defiance played first and were a bit more popular than the bad boy crowd and hit with the cornchip girls. During their set GG stalked the VFW wearing only a satin robe and a jock strap with "eat me" written along the waistband with an arrow pointing downward. Blood told me GG had eaten a box of Ex-Lax on the bus trip from Chicago and was dying to "let all the shit loose." There were a couple of other Chicago punk people came down for the show. They definitely stood out among the mostly high school crowd and just hung to themselves and GG while they were all knocking down adult beverages at the VFW.
Three rocking stooges: "H", GG Allin and Bloody Mess getting in tune.
After the first band finished playing the crowd of about 125 slowly mingled to the parking lot. GG only toured with a boombox and an instrumental audio cassette. About 20 to 25 people were left in the building when GG started playing. Someone called me outside, and when I was just about to step out my buddy CP (Mike O'Russa) grabbed me by the arm and yelled "Bob get in here! He’s shitting on stage! Oh my God, he's really shitting!" Oh boy, was he. Where’s the Ty-D-Bol man when you need him?
I ducked back in and the pungent whiff of pungent punk rock poo blasted my nostrils. I mean crap was everywhere! Floor, GG, chairs, microphone. What fans were left ran for the door holding their noses. Well, craggy and tumble-worn VFW guys don't take too kindly to a half-naked punk rocker shitting on their property. They came flying out of the kitchen and behind the bar ready to kick his ass. But the only problem was nobody wanted to touch his ass! The police were called and GG was shooed out the door like a muddy dog.
When the brown comes tumbling down: GG Allin in an excrement moment.
Fellow Bloody cohort, Kevin Brashear, recalled holding the microphone to the boom box for the cassette to play through the VFW. Brashear crouched directly behind GG and got a "GG point of view" of the fecal frenzy. Here’s what he remembers of the evening.
"GG was throwing crap everywhere! When the VFW guys came running toward us we scurried into my Mom's family station wagon and hightailed out just as the police were showing up. The car reeked of crap! It took days of cleaning to get the odor out!"
In the parking lot the straight edge kids were completely freaked out and fled instantly. I remember just standing there thinking: "This is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen!" A grown-ass man lip synching in a jock strap covered in shit, but it was still more entertaining than a local Van Halen cover band. I then realized I was probably the only attendee over the age of 21 and probably should get the hell out of there.
GG went home to Bloody's apartment and drank the night away. Bloody kept the excrement drenched microphone for a few years until he threw it away.
I believe GG took the bus back to Chicago without showering.
I found an interview with Bloody on the online zine Swedish Scum. Here's his story:
“Yes, GG did plan on shitting onstage the first time. He was staying at my cockroach infested apartment, and I was with him when he bought the Ex-Lax, Unfortunately, he ate it hours before the show, so he constantly had to hold it in or he would've shit before he got onstage..ha...The show was at a local VFW hall in nearby Creve Coeur, Illinois on July 31st 1985. A straight-edge band called Caustic Defiance did open the show, they were out of their element for sure, and were scared to death of GG. My band went on prior for GG... After he shit onstage, complete chaos broke out in the hall... All of the old men in charge of the hall went fucking NUTS! They started picking up the P.A. system, guitar amps and stuff and started throwing it out the door! Hundreds of confused punk kids were flipping out, running out the door, because the smell was INCREDIBLE. In fact, I still smell it, ha ha. GG decided to rub shit all over his chest, so nobody would try to kick his ass... It was great! By the time we jumped in the van, the cops were pulling in! WE GOT AWAY!!! Of course, once we got back to my place, a bunch of trouble started & the cops came. I ended up in jail, being arrested for marijuana possession. I nearly went to prison, but a good attorney comes in handy. GG went to Dallas, Texas and recorded the infamous Texas Nazi's live album.”
About 10 years later, in 1995, I went to a wedding reception at the same VFW hall on the main drag through Creve Coeur. The couple's first dance was about the same spot where GG flew poo 12 years earlier. I wondered how many other romantic christenings took place at the same location as GG Allin's first shit on stage. Ironically, the shit hit the fan about three years later for that couple, ending in divorce.
GG passed away from heroin overdose in 1993, Bloody still records and rocks in Medford, Oregon.
I hear people still talk of this show today. If as many attended as said there would have been about 1000 people there. Crazy but true.
Further reading: Wikipedia, Find A Death and IMDb.
A Bonus Photo From Last Summer!
Here's a photo taken by Karen Luciano of myself and her esteemed husband, Phil from last summer. It was just uncovered and little did I know when this photo was taken that about four months later I'd be living and blogging back here in P-Town! Cheers!
