I can trace it to one specific point in space-time: 1984 at the old Music Machine on Pico Blvd. while waiting for Social Distortion to go on. In between sets the club dropped a screen down from the ceiling and ran videos on it. Most of the videos were limited to things like Target Video’s California punk compiliations or abstract Bauhaus performances, but there was one short clip that stood out – someone or something called Survival Research Laboratories that had outfitted go-karts with flamethrowers and gone nutzo with them in some post-industrial parking lot. One part The Road Warrior, one part Art, and stir carefully with a strong helping of old-fashioned “You Can Have Fun Faster And Better When Fire Is Involved.”
It all made sense several years later when I picked up RE/Search’s Pranks! book and got to meet Mark Pauline in person at the release party at the old Amok Books in Silverlake. I’d seen a couple more full-length recordings of the performances which by then had scaled way beyond weapons-grade mayhem to some sort of higher-level perversity. Maybe it was sonic cannon that shot a ring of compressed air that could break glass.
Twenty-two years after seeing flamethrower go kart video, I still hadn’t ever seen a SRL show. Usually I didn’t hear about it until the show was over (or more likely cancelled prematurely by Authorities) but there have been some close calls – the biggest disappointment being the cancellation of the big 2004 show in Las Vegas which you think would be perfect for both involved, but apparently not for the LVFD.
So when I heard that SRL has planned another Los Angeles show (entitled “The Fish Boy’s Dream”) was planned (this one coinciding with the exhibition/fund-raiser at Fringe Exhibitions) I simply assumed that it would be shut down a few microseconds after the noise violated some sort of local arms-control treaty. Surprisingly that wasn’t the case, if LA police and fire were there, they were invisible, especially as the whole proceedings, audience, robots, flames and all were stuff into a Chinatown parking lot.
Tallying up the carnage, we had:
- A giant half-metal tower Fisherlizard of Prometheus who wielded fire and power-speared the hell out of a drum of fish.
- A couple of hapless “Sneaky Soldier” robots, forever crawling forward towards fiery Doom.
- A fork-lift mounted BFF (Big Fucking Flamethrower) – the chief foe of the Fisherlizard. I noticed that the fork-lift was a rental. I wonder if the rental company ever wonders what their equipment gets used for.
- A clawed walkerbot. It walks! It claws!
- A truly evil hovercraft propelled by four “sonic horns” (for lack of a better description). Early in the performance it worked it’s way over close to the main audience and then cut loose on them with a full blast of sound. Ever see a shock wave work its way through people? Towards the end of the action, the hovercraft celebrated its victory over civilization by catching on fire.
- A drum which exploded several dozen voodoo dolls up in the air.
- A wheeled bot (which, if anything reminded me of an antique steamroller) which seemed to have some control difficulty. Early casualty of war I suppose.
In short… Ummmm goddamn, now I understand what all the fun is about! Anyway, here’s the obligatory Flickr photo set with more commentary.
A nice synchronistic touch was noticing that the license plate on the dead Impala in the parking lot began with “RUR.” I wonder what Capek would have made of all this?