Pinhead Circus's what-the-fuck-ever attitude, while being one of its most endearing and definitive qualities, has also somewhat hindered the band's best efforts. "Pretty much our only regret, if you could really call it that, was that we never really took care of our business very well," Scooter says. "Not that we've ever made ass-loads of money or anything, but every little bit that we did make probably could've been handled a lot better. When you think back, it's been ten years, we've put out four or five records, and we're still scrambling to try to get stuff put together before we go on tour. You'd think we'd have some sort of system down by now, but we never really figured that out. You'd like to think that you're not that much of a fuckup, but eventually it'll smack you in the face, and you'll be like, 'Oh, yeah, maybe I am.'"
Scooter and company's final tour will launch with a local show at Tulagi in Boulder on May 25. Live, the members have always played the part of the consummate jackoffs -- drunk, spastic, seized with an epilepsy of desperation and abandon. Williamson spends about twice as much time in the air as he does on the stage; Scooter scrapes his way against the grain of the melodies with sandpaper tonsils and grit-chewed riffs. The songs, though, remain eminently catchy. At its in-concert best, Pinhead Circus embodies all the tensions, contradictions, joy and despair of subcultural suburbia, connecting with the audience in a way that is nothing short of cathartic. "It's going to be sad playing that last show," says Scooter. "I'm really bummed out about it. It's kind of like breaking up with a girlfriend. You know it's for the best, but it still really hurts."
Lions and tigers and punks, oh, my: Denver quartet Pinhead Circus.
Details
With DeVille, Recover and the Hacks
8 p.m., Saturday, May 25
$8.50, 303-443-3399
Tulagi, 1133 13th Street, Boulder
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Pinhead disciples, however, won't have to wait long for the Second Coming. Taking their name from an album by the defunct Electric Summer -- an already legendary local punk band formed by Japanese exchange students -- three members of Pinhead Circus plan to regroup as Love Me Destroyer. Scooter, Williamson and Barker will be joined by singer/guitarist Chip Dziedzic of Arizona pop-punk veterans Jedi 5. "We've known Chip for years. We've been playing with Jedi 5 every time we'd go down to Arizona, so we already kind of know where his writing style lies. He was doing the same thing I was -- he was the main writer/contributor to his band. The stuff he does is a lot more poppy and less hard than the stuff I've been writing lately. Hopefully we'll come together and find some sort of common ground. And I think we're going to go for the Lennon/McCartney 'You write it, you sing it' sort of deal," Scooter elaborates. "It's like a New Year's resolution. We're vowing to change all these things we fucked up in the first place. To us it means more to do something new and not tarnish what we've accomplished."
In preparation for hunting down a new label, Love Me Destroyer has already begun recording demos. "We've talked to a few people, but nothing serious. There are labels interested, but I don't know. We'll see," Scooter says, laughing. "Everybody's interested at one point, you know, and then it's like trying to actually get them to call you back and tell you what they really think. It seems like nobody wants to take a chance with a band. They want to find someone who doesn't really need any help. They usually just want to sign the next big thing. I'm sure there are a million bands out there that have more of a professional relationship than a personal one. But that's not the kind of guys we are. We're all pretty social people, so it just makes more sense to be friends first, to kind of base everything around that."
So with practically every past member of Pinhead Circus still living in the Denver area, is there any chance of an eventual reunion show? Scooter grins at the irony of pulling off such a rock-star move. "Maybe," he replies. "Actually, we were thinking about being a Pinhead Circus cover band for Halloween."
