‘You not seen it, it’s all over the internet.’ Bad news travels fast, my friend had witnessed the Brianjonestown Massacre meltdown in Australia, he described it as ‘pathetic, like two drunk old men in a pub car park.’
Band onstage fights make great comedy but are rare, The Beach Boys used to kick each other in the shin, or maybe just Mike Love’s. It is usually a sign of an impending catastrophic implosion when one band member wants to murder another for various transgressions that occur whilst trawling the rock and roll highway, fortunately they are usually feeble affairs considering the amount of blunt instruments available to use as weapons.
Criticising or victimising another musician onstage is a serious transgression especially when it is in front of an audience, I would never do such a thing but I know people who have and they are very lucky not to have lost some teeth. Anton appeared to be in his own poetically addled way cranking up the pressure until those final moments when the band imploded like the Titan submercible.
Anton’s flight or fight response kicked in pretty quick as soon as he realised his man had blown a fuse, he showed some nimble footwork skilfully avoiding stage obstacles until his man caught up with him and they hit the deck , both protagonists ground work was exceptionally poor missing the opportunity to bite an ear off and spit it into the crowd, head butts, eye gouging and choke holds. Ricky goes down in sympathy, another BJM guitar player is toppled and disappears behind his amp, reverb tanks are clanging, hats are flying. In this short span of time the pathos of this little drama seems to sum up the state of the world, as the BJM act out onstage the collapse of civilisation the Aussie audience seeth in angry confusion and disbelief as the band spontaneously combusts in front of their eyes. As the curtain goes down Anton sits on his amp, beaten and bemused like a true American hero.
I am glad I met Anton and BJM and I wished I had seen more of them over the years, if this is the end of the band it is an ignominious one which illustrates human frailty and the limits of the rock and roll lifestyle. No explanation or apology has been offered by Anton or the band members, maybe they do not feel like they have anything to apologise for. Thanks for the music guys.
petespacemanbassman 