VIDEORGY: “D.U.I.” began as a benefit concert...

VIDEORGY: “D.U.I.” began as a benefit concert for one of the members of Severed Head in a Bag, who was arrested for drunk driving (hence the title) and organized a show to help defray legal expenses. Now it’s a full-blown documentary of the mid-’80s local underground music scene, which shows tonight at the EZTV Video Gallery. Directed by Spike Stewart and produced by Stewart and Cathleen Doyle, it sort of begins where Penelope Spheeris’ “Decline of Western Civilization” left off. If it doesn’t have the intensity of Spheeris’ epic, it has plenty of scope, offering a glimpse of some of L.A.’s most bizarre sonic boomers, including the good (John Trubee and the Ugly Janitors of America), the bad (the terminally obnoxious Three Day Stubble, who perform wearing Kentucky Fried Chicken chef’s caps), and the ugly (Wurm, a manic garage band who probably should’ve stayed there, with the motor running).

The mood for the video is set early on, when one band member describes their show by saying, “We like to let people into our gigs for free and then charge ‘em $5 to get out.” As with most visionary art, the ideas are often more intriguing than the execution, but “D.U.I” is still a fascinating avant-punke document (though we’d advise that you bring along a bottle of Excedrin if you’re planning on sitting through the whole 80-minute affair). The video has something for everyone, ranging from Debt of Nature, who mix electronic feedback with audio tapes of commentary from Evel Knievel jumps, to the Free Bass Ensemble, which features a stage-full of bass players, who play with the thunderously mellow tone of a herd of classically trained elephants. For us, the highlight was John Trubee, an engaging, articulate character, whose comical interview segments are matched by a batch of inspired, if somewhat perverse performances--he opens his show by donning a gorilla mask and throwing up into a bag. Some of the concert footage cries out for tougher editing, but it’s still a treat to see all these musical pranksters under one roof. As Ernest Beauvine, one of the members of the cow-punk ensemble Jon Wayne, puts it: “It’s better to have something unusual that a few people like a lot than something that everybody likes for 15 minutes.”