above GG Allin performing in 1992
There’s never been nor will there ever be another performer like GG Allin. A raging id given a stage, he was easily the crudest, rudest, most violent and disgusting individual to hold a microphone.
He would stand onstage naked (occasionally receiving oral sex from audience members); sodomize himself with the mic; cut himself with broken bottles; urinate and defecate on himself, onlookers and his band; and beat up attendees in shows that rarely lasted 15 minutes before the crowd and club owners chased him from the venue.
“It would look like there was nobody at the show, because everyone was in one corner or another, or in the back. You hardly ever see people up in the front,” said his brother and longtime bandmate, Merle Allin. “Every time we went into a club, we’d look for the back exits. We would hide our vehicle, because they always wanted to fuck your vehicle up when they were pissed at you. It was a mob scene waiting to kill you.
“We were a nightmare for the rental company because they’d have to give us a new fucking vehicle every week or two. We would be turning in a heavily damaged vehicle that smelt like shit-ass death and vomit.”
GG’s music was primal and rudimentary punk, bristling with aggression, sacrilege and the profane, from “Kill Thy Father, Rape Thy Mother” to “Diarrhea Blues.” For all their raw, puerile content, the songs, like the Ramones, had a catchy fury, particularly his ’70s and ’80s material with his early band, The Jabbers.
Merle Allin played bass in The Jabbers, and then again in The Murder Junkies, who backed GG on his last album and tour before his fatal heroin overdose in 1993.
In death, GG graduated from infamy to fame. The 1994 documentary “Hated,” directed by Todd Phillips — who went on to “Old School” and “The Hangover” — sure didn’t hurt.
“Now that he’s dead, all these hard-core fuckers are like, ‘Me and GG would’ve been best friends,’” Merle Allin said. “Dude, you weren’t even alive when GG was kicking people’s ass. He could’ve been your friend five minutes before he went onstage, and as soon as he got onstage, you could’ve been the first one with his nose broken. Believe me: You wouldn’t have been friends with him after that.”
Thanks to Merle Allin, The Murder Junkies continue; in March, they released their first new album in 16 years. It features rumbling, hard-charging, intentionally offensive misogynist anthems like “Once a Whore” and “Stab You 50 Times.”
“The band we’ve got right now is the best band we’ve had since GG died. By fucking far. It’s the same oldschool punk stuff we all were influenced by,” he said, noting, “It’s nice to be able to play an entire set without being chased from the stage.”
This article appears in Apr 27 – May 3, 2011.