SAT. NOV. 2, 2002
Every once in a while out-of-towners roll through and thoroughly out-freak the locals. It’s embarrassing, yes, but keeping Austin weird means shaking up the pot every once in a while. Halloween on 6th Street may be scary, but something truly frightening is happening Saturday night at the Round Rock Performing Arts Center. If you have the cajones or huevos or whatever it takes to venture into those high latitudes, you can check out the Apologetix, a Christian Rock parody band that takes perfectly serviceable rock hits and punches them up with biblical/evangelistic references, often with hilarious results. Witness the perverse genius of “Donkey Talked with Him,” a parody of the Rolling Stones’ classic “Honky Tonk Women” that covers the story of Balaam and the Angel; “Bad Dude Risin’” a Jesus-inspired reworking of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising;” and “Fast Paul,” a brief, fiendishly nutty history of St. Paul set to the music of “The Way” by Austin’s very own Fastball. The Apologetix aren’t only about goofy Christian lyrics however, there is also the sweep and majesty of their stage show. The band’s get-ups are seriously con queso. You’ve got your Supercuts fade with grocery store peroxide, the faux (or are they real?) leather pants, the shiny polyester shirts, the metal studded belts, the black sneakers – even a full on greasy mullet. Think of it this way: Even if in the end you can’t appreciate their humor, appreciate the fact that they’re keeping a whole new generation of true believers from scratching up their CDs by playing them backwards.