Wesley Willis with The Causey Way
Tuesday October 17th 2000 @ El Mocambo, Toronto

We arrived at this show nice and early, expecting to find the place pretty much deserted, but what we found was that there was already a huge line-up of people waiting outside in the light drizzle. Strange. What seemed even stranger to me was the fact that the El Mo suddenly decided to raise the price at the door by five dollars more than they had originally advertised.

The plain white van parked on the side of the road labelled with the words “The Causey Way Ministries” was a little bit confusing to those who were unfamiliar with Causey and his teachings. (Apparently, this included just about everyone in line at that point.) To the uninitiated, I can see how it might evoke feelings of uncertainty. “Is this going to be some kind of gospel band?” I heard one kid say. I laughed to myself, thinking that soon he too would be one with the Causey Way.

I was actually surprised how few people had heard of the Causey Way, considering that they had a number of releases under their belt, including a full length album on Alternative Tentacles. But it was clear from the outset that the majority of the crowd was there only to see the headlining act, one Mr. Wesley Willis.

When we were finally allowed inside, Wesley was sitting in a dark corner of the club, waiting to sell his merchandise. People just flocked to him. Everyone wanted to meet him, talk to him, and/or butt heads with him. People crowded around to watch with fascination and admiration. Willis is a very charismatic guy, but at the same time he’s very intimidating. He’s a pretty big fella, and on top of that, he is a diagnosed schizophrenic who is pretty damn spaced out. So as much as people were drawn to him, they were also a little hesitant to approach him in person.

Wesley Willis has become something of a legend. I’m not too sure exactly how and when it all came about, but I found it strange to be surrounded by people who were saying things like “I can’t believe I’m about to see Wesley Willis live!” and “This is the best day of my life!”

The opening band Conio was… a cover band??? I was somewhat dumbfounded that a cover band had ended up on the same bill as two of the most original bands I’ve ever heard in my life. It was pretty damn tough sitting through mediocre cover versions of Wire, The Who, Guided By Voices, and AC/DC, knowing that the Causey Way would be up next. Conio seemed to have energy and a sense of humour, but they were also somewhat sloppy and generally annoyed me. I felt embarrassed for them when they had to resort to covering a Wesley Willis song – “Rock and Roll McDonald’s” – to get a reaction out of the audience. With Wesley’s permission of course.

Finally, Conio ended their set, and there was a bit of a wait before the Causey Way took the stage. The various stage props and decorations helped set the mood for the Causey “service” that was about to take place. All the amps and keyboards had (fake) candles affixed to them and the microphone stands all had branches and leaves delicately entwined around them. There was also a big glowing CIA (Causey Is Awesome) sign in the background.

The band members emerged wearing their white uniforms of purity, and with little more than a single uttered “Hallelujah”, blasted into “Message From The Pulpit”, the first track from their full length album. They were aggressive and tight, and they were rocking harder than Jesus himself. It was, simply put, everything that a Causey follower could have prayed for.

Then, slowly, something strange began to happen. One of the keyboardists (the one affectionately known as “The Button”) began to have some trouble with his synthesizer unit. After spending the better part of a song trying to remedy the situation, he decided to strap on a mini-keyboard and simply thrash around the stage like a madman.

I wasn’t too sure if the so-called “technical difficulties” were a part of the act, or if they were really happening. At any rate, the problems didn’t seem to be anything too major, because the band continued to pound through a couple more songs in the meantime. Still, Causey, the normally calm and soothing group leader, did seem to be glancing over from time to time with a look of genuine concern on his face.

At the next break in between songs, Causey decided to look into the keyboard problem personally, fiddling with some wires momentarily. Unfortunately he was unable to work any miracles at this point, and the best he could do was to bless The Button with a guitar to use for the time being (although The Button seemed pretty lost in trying to play it).

The situation intensified when, during the next song, Causey’s own guitar began cutting out intermittently. He fought with the guitar, and then at the end of the song he dropped it to the ground in disgust.

There was a definite sense that the tension level was rising on stage. What was worse, the band members began to appear almost human, with Causey himself displaying definite signs of worry and frustration. Their schtick was faltering a little bit, because their stage characters were no longer fully believable.

Of course, this only provided fuel for the many closed minded morons that were in the audience. One heckler’s voice could be heard loud and clear over the din insisting that “Devo did it better”. This did not please Causey at all. He actually challenged the originator of that comment to come up on stage because he literally wanted to “kick his ass”. When the naysayer actually had the gall to step up on stage, it looked for a minute like there would indeed be a fight on stage, but then Causey managed to gain control of himself, and instead performed a laying on of healing hands, and showed the heathen forgiveness.

Temporarily order was restored, and The Button took over vocal duties for the song “What Power Is”, as he walked amongst the crowd with a microphone, whispering bits of wisdom into people’s ears. When they were not worrying about technical difficulties, the Causey Way were playing the cult thing up perfectly. The female bassist/vocalist (known as “The Truth”) in her white blouse and matching skirt looked out over the crowd flashing her suspiciously alluring smile, while Causey himself just looked a lot like David Khoresh. The vocals provided by the band members were always delivered in soothing tones, and in between songs they spoke with an air of confidence and seriousness that was simply brilliant in its authenticity.

Unfortunately, every band has to endure shows where things simply don’t go their way, and tonight, the Causey Way were having one of those shows.

As their fifth or sixth song came to an end, some idiotic gutter punk wearing a spiked leather jacket, stepped forth from the crowd and let loose with a stream of beer that soaked The Truth and most of the stage. Causey snapped. He jumped out onto the floor and confronted the dumbfounded punk, pushing him and swearing at him in a frenzy, saying he was going to kill him. Then he turned and threw his guitar at the perpetrator’s feet, at which point the punk figured that he ought to spray even more beer on stage. Causey simply turned to the crowd and said, “That’s it, we’re done. Goodnight.”

And that was that. Causey had spoken, and the band walked off stage.

It was probably a wise choice on their part, and certainly an understandable one. For one thing, their schtick and their whole stage show was now ruined. Causey had let his emotions get the best of him and had “blown his cover” so to speak. What’s more, the band may have felt humiliated by an audience that clearly had no respect for them. And, if anything, having their gear soaked in alcohol was only going to add to the technical difficulties.

This still did not change the fact that we got to see less than half of the Causey Way’s set. That sucked, and we were pissed.

The Causey incident didn’t seem to have upset too many other showgoers however, because they had all come to worship their one true god, the truly bizarre Wesley Willis. By now the place was completely packed, and the show was actually sold out. It was hot and crowded, and not many people could actually see the stage.

People began to chant “Wes-ley! Wes-ley!” and slowly, he waddled his way up onto the stage, seemingly oblivious to the mass of people in the room who were cheering him on. His movement was slow and sloth-like. He sat down in front of his keyboard, opened up his “song book”, and took off his trademark walkman and headphones.

At this point, the crowd was hanging on his every word. He opened up his mouth and delivered his opening comment, which was something along the lines of “Suck my dick motherfuckers”. The place erupted with laughter and applause.

For the rest of the night, as Wesley played song after song, nothing really changed. People continued to hang on his every word. Every time he swore or said something vulgar, the place went berserk. I’m not sure what was more ridiculous, Wesley’s performance, or the people in the crowd.

Wesley went through such classics as “Suck a bulldog’s dick” and “Suck my Doberman’s dick”, and all the while he was totally straight faced and completely absorbed in his music. Even during the five-minute keyboard demo “solos” he maintained a look of utmost concentration on his face. It really was quite the spectacle.

Now we all know that most of Wesley Willis’ songs sound exactly the same. On this night however, the repetitiveness of the songs really began to wear on me after a while. I was truly amazed at the attention span of the audience members at this show. They never seemed to tire of Wesley’s antics. They just stood transfixed.

Aside from a few amusing interactions with the crowd, the rest of the show was pretty uneventful. Eventually he reached the end of his set, and he closed with everyone’s favourite Wesley Willis tune, “Cut The Mullet”.

When it was all over, I found myself having mixed feelings about the show, and about the fact that the show had completely sold out. I think it is great that so many people were there to support Wesley. He should be applauded, because he is an artist in his own right, and an extremely unique one at that. But I question people’s motives for being at this show. How many people there actually appreciate what he does, and how many people just think it is funny because he talks weird and swears a lot? In some ways it’s like people were taking advantage of someone who is handicapped, and having a laugh at his expense. On the other hand, is Wesley’s schizophrenia really a “handicap”? Wesley himself even said he is a “rock star” and he is definitely milking this for all it’s worth. He was selling t-shirts and cds like crazy. So I guess in the end, it’s Wesley who’s having the last laugh.

It was definitely a great experience to have been able to witness the downright weirdness that is a Wesley Willis live performance. Honestly though, I didn’t really care all that much. The night had already been spoiled, and having Wesley Willis as a headliner was, for me, extremely anti-climactic.

This was definitely one of the most bizarre shows I’ve seen, and very memorable for both good and bad reasons. It was exciting and inspiring to see performances from two really unique artists, but on the other hand it was disappointing to see the lack of respect that the audience seemed to have for these artists. I just pray to Causey that somewhere in the future we can learn to offer encouragement to those artists who are different and unique in our independent music scene, rather than mock than and take advantage of them. — Sean

For anyone who is interested, Black Hole TV has video clips and interview footage from both The Causey Way and Wesley Willis. These pictures are actually screen captures from their videos, which I managed to steal through a complicated and lengthy process…