Best Bizzaro Art Above All

The fenced-in lot attached to Gallery Horse Cow on Del Paso Boulevard fills up as curious art patrons wander in. They’re wondering about the stacks of metal debris scattered around, or the scaffolding that carries an impressive array of dance-club lights. Whatever question anyone might have is soon answered, as many of them are sent scurrying toward the exit, it is hoped to safety, as Uberkunst makes the lot its stage.

Dressed in various degrees of fetish, goth and creep show, the 12 or so band members begin banging loudly, metal against metal. A militaristic voice can be heard yelling, but the words are indecipherable.

Normally, you don’t find “humor” and “noise scene” in the same sentence, unless the noise scene is being parodied. But Uberkunst is unique; the band maintains a sense of humor while betraying an honest respect for the noise genre and for performance art in general.

“We do genuinely love the noise scene as [much] as metal,” says the mild-mannered Jetrock Fuckblast, Uberkunst’s sometimes frontman. “I like the idea of laughing authority out of existence.” he says.

Uberkunst’s bases its own dogma on “NIAD,” or Noise Instrument Analog Device—a faceless machine that recognizes only the many and not the individual.

The dogma of NIAD manifests on CD as The Will of NIAD (released on Uberkunst’s own Super Art Media label) and onstage as live gore, such as the gut catapult. Most delightful of all are the Jack Chick-style Bible tracts mocking those that certain proselytizers distribute.

“I’m fascinated with authoritarian states,” says Fuckblast. “All oppressive governments have told their people that though they may be suffering, the alternative is worse. The Nazis did. The Soviet Union did. America does. NIAD teaches that although you may be being dominated by evil pain machines, it’s still better then not being dominated by evil pain machines!”

Expect nothing when planning to attend an Uberkunst show. The band can play quietly and even melodically one evening, then can detonate a horrid explosion of ugliness the next—depending on what its members can get away with, and how they feel at the time. On occasions when the band is asked to behave, it may resort to showering audiences with pornography and stuffed animals.