The members of the "rock 'n' roll" band Luke Pewk and the Vomit brag that they've never been asked to play the same place twice. You can add Olde Salem Days to that growing list. There won't be any return engagement for "LPTV" after it stirred up a fuss at this fall's annual festival. The proceedings drew a reaction from the Salem Jaycees; the sponsor of the event; in the form of an open letter to the newspaper. Luke and friends jumped to the defense and left those who weren't there to wonder exactly what the heck was going on. "Personally. we'd just like to see the issue die;" said Salem's Roger Petersen; president of the Jaycees. "We don't to give the band any advertisement. They offered to do a free performance and we took them at their word. I don't know anything about the music profession." In fact there's more to Luke Pewk and the Vomit than you saw, or did not see or left because of, at Library Square during Olde Salem Days. The band toned its act down for the occasion and still did an original number with a tasteless title. It got just the reaction Luke was looking for. "We like to shock people," said John Krippendorf of Lewis Avenue, who is Luke. John's a Salem High graduate and the founder of the band. "We started out with a concept to be the most disgusting band in existence. We wanted to come up with a name that was the most disgusting thing we could, but that people could still print or say on the radio." He went on to list some contemporary bands whose names could not be printed and you won't hear them on the radio, either. Some people call them punk, but Krippendorf (aka Luke) says that's not the case. "People label us with that, but we're not a punk band," he said. "We're a rock 'n' roll band." When LPTV offered to play at Olde Salem Days it told the Jaycees it played 1960s music. John said the sound is more "garage band." Mark Young of the band; who goes by "Mark Maggot" explains. "We are a sixties band," he said. 1'We have the '60s beat and don't have any synthesizers or anything like that. I guess that's a loose translation; but we write all our own material. That was the concept from the start, to write our own material." That was the problem at Olde Salem Days. The lyrics were of questionable taste in LPTV's 'toned down" numbers and the songs they chose not to play were worse, or better depending on whom you ask. "We have some songs we call ultra filth," said Krippendorf, who went on to explain some of the lyrics. They have as much chance of being printed in a newspaper as Luke Pewk does of being named Jaycee of the Year. "They started playing at four o'clock and people started complaining right away," said Petersen of the now famous local incident. "They couldn't find me for awhile, but when I got down there the band was dedicating a song to (a recent savage act). I didn't make an immediate decision because I'm not a music critic but when the arts and crafts people started leaving something had to be done. It was my fault they weren't taken off sooner." Actually, the band played for 55 minutes of its scheduled hour, which isn't bad by LPTV standards. It once caused a full-scale riot at a local tavern when band followers tangled with local patrons. It wasn't the country band the clientele was accustomed to, at least not THIS country. "We've never been asked to play a place twice," said Krippendorf, almost proud of the fact. The biggest audience for 'LPTV was for 400 people at a private party and it also played the Grandin Theatre on "Punk Night," when slam dancers were "getting down" in earnest. The band uses the initials LPTV because, "some people would hear the name and say we sounded like a band they wouldn't want to have, said Alasdair Riach, an original member who moved to Salem from England. "It's a lot easier to get gigs." Actually it's not so easy sometimes. The group rarely practices but hangs out together often. It plays gigs between the cracks of a hardwood floor that runs the grain of middle America. Take Luke, for example. He dresses In a black mask and spikes to perform but at work he wears corduroy pants and penny loafers. He works for People's Drugs just like his mom who prefers Gospel music. She witnessed the Salem Days fiasco and commented it "wasn't bad for our style of music," said John. Riach's father is a minister and Young's dad makes dentures. Bobbie May, a fourth member of the band, is a student at the University of Virginia. "Our style of living very normal," said Riach, who added that he hoped wouldn't be deported after this piece appeared. "I'm afraid I'm going to lose my green card. We're just trying to some fun." "The others are normal but maybe not me." said Krippendorf the force behind five years of "playin' and slayin' " as the band's motto goes. John is the only one who doesn't play an instrument and he balked when he was listed as vocalist. "Make it verbal assault ," he said. And that was the gist of the problem at Olde Salem Days. The verbal assault wasn't what the average Salemite was used to, if there is such a thing as an average Salemite. Certainly those in the craft stands by library square didn't consider LPTV your average band, Salemites or not. "The arts and crafts people said they were obscene and vulgar." said Petersen. "Some of the antique car people said they weren't coming back if that band returned next year. and I assured them it wouldn't. That was why I wrote the letter to the paper, so everyone would know the band won't be back. "Listen. it was extremely embarrassing for us and, we felt we had to respond. We had no recourse but to make an apology. We didn't plan on slam dancing 50 feet from the kid's fair. It was just an unfortunate incident." You won't hear LPTV at Olde Salem Days again, but the band is putting out an album, "when our tax money comes next spring." and it has booked a gig for the Iroquois in Roanoke October 14. It has even talked of playing Salem's Barrel House again, which would be a first. Imagine that. a return engagement. "We're excited about our future," said Riach. "We think we're the best rock 'n' roll band In the world, bar none." The Jaycee wouldn't agree. "I'm not a music critic, but I thought the band musically was bad and the lyrics were in poor taste and I wasn't the only one who felt that way," said Petersen. Everything else at Olde Salem Days went so well I just didn't want people to think the Salem Jaycees sponsored that band. I assure you they'll never play at one of our events again." And that's one song LPTV has heard before. |