Jay Reatard Punches Audience Member, Walks Out On Show

The Silver Dollar Room

Toronto, ON

on Apr 17 2008

Cameron Gordon (CHARTattack)

04/18/2008 10:00am

It was battle of the bands night at The Silver Dollar. Except instead of high school cover bands vying for studio time, we saw a cerebral "three way dance" pitting Memphis madman Jay Reatard versus fans versus bookers in a beer-soaked battle to the death. The fists were flying good and plenty, and what the concert lacked in actual music, it made up for in spectacle.

Montreal's CPC Gangbangs warmed up the crowd and their proficient take on hardcore went over swimmingly with the sweaty masses. Almost as impressive as the band's musical dexterity was the bassist's "plumber butt" which he showcased with a certain big city panache throughout the set. The CPCs are absolutely torrid in performance and are definitely one of the finest punk bands in Canada, especially if you're predisposed to the finer cuts from the SST catalogue.

Reatard set up next and with a pair of mongoloid bandmates in tow, his deliberate, lurching mannerisms were a bit tough to swallow, especially considering he unleashed a good six or seven loogies before he even played a note. A few mumbles opened the set and the show was over within 10 minutes. Reatard managed to make it through three-and-a-half tunes including punk gems "It's So Useless" and "My Shadow." But between-song horseplay sent everyone home early.

Things started to go pear-shaped when an audience member sauntered on stage and Reatard landed a haymaker to the back of his noggin, ripping the fella's shirt for good measure. Reatard then chose to use an empty beer pitcher as a percussion instrument as he hurled it off some guy's forehead. Maybe it was the same guy whose shirt got ripped. I couldn't tell from my vantage point. Either way, Reatard was somewhat miffed.

The insults flew and before long, Reatard stopped playing, packed up his Flying V guitar and escaped on to Spadina Avenue, never to be seen or smelt again. Silver Dollar booker Dan Burke picked up the cause and dove into the audience to engage in some lively fisticuffs with yet another patron as the crowd, by and large, seemed pretty amused by what just took place.

Promoter Craig Laskey tried his best to save face minutes later, but the chaos had devolved to the point where Burke was taunting Reatard with jibes like "Jay Refund" and referring to the walk-off as primordially low class. (Amazingly, Burke never spilled his drink during all this chicanery, unless I missed something.) It was a total mess of a gig but certainly one that will go down in infamy, if nothing else.