7#     . NNNN X bb xN @*j @0@@j4@@@@@@hed: Trippin dek: Is Knoxville ready for Lords of Acid? WHO: Lords of Acid, with DINK WHERE: Electric Ballroom WHEN: Friday, Feb. 10, 9 p.m. HOW MUCH: Call 656-4444 for ticket info by Bootrus Bootrus-Golly ZOOOOOOM!! What was that? It was a dance trend, man. Which one? House. No, wait, it was Deep House. It might have been Acid House. On second thought, I think it was Techno. Im not sure. Dont worry about it. Dance fads come and dance fads go, likewise the sounds that power them. Lords of Acid hail from Belgium, and have been setting bodies and booties in motion since 88. The Lords transcend club trends because they can simultaneously embrace a fad and defy it by using it as a vehicle for something larger. Techno-punk is the only way I can describe Lords of Acid, says vocalist Ruth McCardle (a.k.a. Lady Galore), sounding just a bit like Diana Rigg undercover in Manchester. Its got that techno beat, definitely butindustrial, punk, reggaeits all in there. If anybodys qualified to tag a techno beat, it would be McCardle, or any one of the Lords for that matter. They helped tip the world to techno seven years ago with their wildfire club single I Sit on Acid. The Lords formed to recreate the Belgian New Beat sound that came from punk and dance singles played at the wrong speed. Voodoo-U, their latest, brings the manic techno arrhythmic heart-bass-thump up to date. But that aint all it does. Lords of Acid have the potential to act as the same kind of catalyst for anarchy that Crass and the Pistols did before them. The difference is that if the youth ever take to the streets chasing change after a Lords concert, they wont be leathered and armed with broken bottles. Theyll be naked and sweaty. My flesh is your flesh/but your tongue is mine. Use it to enter/my love-hungry shrine, McCardle spits like tacks in Do What You Wanna Do. She can croon and coo with the best of the club divas, but when the guitars and synthetic sawblades hit hardwood, McCardle swings with them, bustin rhymes that draw blood. Or at least sweat. Theres a pleasure to shocking that the Lords really like, yknow? says McCardle. Everybodys so uptight these days. We say, Come on, let your hair down! Its only sex, for Christs sake. Everybody does it. In Tennessee, who knows? Maybe Ill be arrested. American (the Lords new label) has been very good about letting us do what we want. Though, there was one song called Wet Dreams that got rejected. It was just too rude, so we had to edit it. Now its a bit more instrumental. I think its going to be a killer on the club scene, because its really, really dirty. But its all in good fun. Our philosophy on drugs is, Everything in moderation. You can be addicted to anything, even sex. If theres a hole in your life, youre going to fill it. And if you fill it with drugs, thats not too great. Drugs like, well, acid and ecstasy are often associated with techno because of the already pass rave scene. Raves were (and sometimes still are) renegade dance parties where the young and young at heart would trip and techno-twirl themselves into a collectively conscious paisley parade. They were good fun, according to some, but they made non-attendees nervous. But chemically altered youngsters, dancing to music that the formerly young dont like, have always made the elders antsy. Lords of Acid are the last bastion of Syd Barretts vision. Their sound is a psychedelic V-8, injected with a nitrous oxide beat that cannot be ignored. Voodoo-U could make dead laboratory rats pogo all the way to nirvana. Now, if you heard the joke about the guitar tech on the MC Hammer tour who didnt have anything to do, youre probably wondering what a concert by this turntable band is going to be like. McCardle opines that it just might be more than you can handle. Weve been rehearsing so hard, you just wouldnt believe it, she says. Musically, were tighter than a mermaids brassiere. Were a crossover band, really, and we want to give everybody the best of both worlds. McCardle refers to her bandmates by their instruments, but presumably she knows their names. The keyboard player (Shai De La Luna) is just so on it. The guitar player (Erhan) is out of this world, very sexy indeed. The girls are going to go crazy, thats all I can say. The drummer (McGuinnes) is an animal. Hes nothing but hair and arms and flying sticks. The bass player (Lord T. Byron) is often too much. He likes to experiment on-stage. Youve heard the records. Come and see the show, baby. u ??  ?? ? ???/7 [ a @@ 9:;Yr  & + i V Q! ! ! ! ! "     &C88QHH(FG(HH(d'@=/R@H -:LaserWriter  HelveticammmESE4MUSIC/INTERVIEW/5.02 Jophus Scone Jophus Scone