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After 30 years in the punk rock biz, Murray Acton — better known as “The Cretin”— knows he’s not 18 anymore.
The Dayglo Abortions frontman also knows that his lyrics are crude, offensive and often juvenile.
And that’s just fine.
Dayglo Abortions joins a throng of fast and heavy bands both old and new at this weekend’s Unrest Fest at New City Compound, a two-day concert put on by local label Unrest Records.
Dayglo hits the stage tonight alongside Driller Killer and others, while SNFU, The Dickies and several more will tear things up tomorrow night.
“I’m starting to fall apart, eh. It turns out the punk rock is kind of hard on the body,” Acton says, his voice oddly reminiscent of Doug McKenzie from the Bob and Doug SCTV sketches. “I’ve got all these joint problems; carpal tunnel and tendinitis and all other sort of stuff like that. Bad knees, broken back, all kinds of junk.”
Now 48 years old, Acton says he’s still having fun on the road, but he admits he’s had to tone down the partying substantially.
“We don’t party anywhere near like we used to. God, I’m amazed that any of us are still even functional,” he says. “I’ve seen so many people bite the dust and just become lunchboxes over the years.”
He also admits, sense of humour intact as always, that he doesn’t quite have the energy he once did on stage.
“I’m definitely not jumping up and down like I used to or anything like that.”
“We were thinking of getting wheelchair access onto the back of the stage and coming in with oxygen masks and everything like that, gasping for air, trying to milk a little bit of sympathy out of the audience.”
Acton left the B.C. band briefly in the ’90s to focus on his other gross-out punk band Lummox, but after years of minor lineup juggling, Dayglo is back as a trio for its current tour.
The guys have become Canadian punk heroes, sticking it out since 1979 and keeping things fresh with hard rock grooves and Acton’s trademark metal guitar noodling. It’s an odd position for Dayglo Abortions, given that the band’s entrance into the punk scene was, well, not entirely serious.
“We were not really punkers, we were sort of a little old for that almost,” Acton says, naming Frank Zappa, Black Sabbath and The Mahavishnu Orchestra as some of his favourite acts as a youth.
“I was really self-conscious about the first album (1981’s Out of the Womb).
“I thought everybody was gonna hate it ’cause we were sort of more metal and the punk songs that we had on there were kinda more of a parody of punk.”
The sarcasm in the simple hooks and vile lyrics seemed to fly over the heads of most in the punk scene. Or at least, those who got it took it good-heartedly.
Then there were some who misread the message completely, thinking the band was out to spread hate.
“You know you’ve got a good joke going on when you get a bunch of Nazi skinheads saying that we’re their favourite band because they aren’t smart enough to read the second verse or something,” Acton says with a chuckle.
He says that while shock value has been an important tool, from the band’s lyrics to its notoriously repulsive album covers, Dayglo has never been out to spread negativity.
“We’re not really nasty or anything like that, we’re just a little bit juvenile and low-brow sometimes.
“We really mean no harm.”