Wesley Willis has a gift shared by many geniuses: schizophrenia. It's also shared by a lot of really scary people. He writes songs like "Suck the master's dick," "Rock 'n' Roll McDonald's," and "I Wupped Batman's Ass" to fight out the demons in his head. He's gained cult figure status through his brand of "outsider art;" art performed by the mentally deranged.
I was at Likwid Lounge on Saturday night to talk to Mike about DJing a Motown Monday night. The concept was twisted around, partly by New City management, partly by me, to incorporate a wider range of music. I'll start the Monday after we release posters.
Anyway, I was spinning a few records for them, when the bands started bringing stuff in. While I was playing the Chi-Lites, one of the guys from Grand Buffet told Mike "Hire this guy." There was this huge Black guy sitting at the merch table, and I slowly figured out he was Wesley Willis. He kept asking me "Lemme hear you say 'Rock.'"
It turned out Jebus was DJing that night, and he invited me to stick around.
Click for a larger image.
Before I left, it was a beautiful January day. I took these just at sunset.
I went out for supper with Jebus and Cherie at McDonald's. Only the best for you, baby.
Here's Wesley at his merch table. He always insists on sitting there at his shows. He kept getting people to say "rock" and "roll" and headbutting them.
Cherie refused to say "rock." She also refused to pose for me.
There's Jebus. We're working on a DJ name for me that'll contrast with his name. I'm looking up synonyms of Satan.
Here's Grand Buffet. They turned out to be a hip-hop act.
I think this guy here looks like Ben from Robotech.
The other guy, in the middle of a song, pointed at me and shouted, "No cameras!" I was about to put it away, but he said "Just kidding!"
They played a short set, but they said they'd be back after the next band.
I forgot the next band's name.
Cherie stuffed this wrapper in Adam's hoodie.
Grand Buffet came back, and the crowd loved them even more the second time.
It took a while for man-mountain Wesley Willis to make it onto the stage, but when he plopped himself down behind his organ, it was clear he wasn't going to be moving for a while.
The bruise on his forehead apparently comes from headbutting everyone. I'm proud to say I escaped that honour. The mark on his right cheek is apparently a knife wound.
I'd love to see these photos animated into a GIF.
He opened with a new song, "Osama bin Laden." You can see the lyric sheet here.
I noticed he had these little Japanese dolls scattered around the stage.
Here's the sound guy, who I think did most of the background music. You could hear him talking to Wesley through the monitor speakers on stage.
