Black Moth Super Rainbow member Tobacco is known for his risque visuals. We covered them at our review of a show we attended earlier this year in Pittsburgh and most of them are tame YouTube clips that promise a DVD for more explicit content. During his smaller shows, not an eye seemed to blink, but since his grand opportunity to open for The Flaming Lips, attendees from the show have noted some peculiar activity from various venue staff and audience members.
Reports are currently coming into Twitter, that are being retweeted by Tobacco under his handle @maniacmeat that his opening set at Artpark in Lewiston, NY was shut down two songs in because of the backdrop images being deemed too obscene by the venue.
Those who are unsure of what kind of visuals happen during this Electronic set can be directed to this Not Safe For Work image, in all of it’s 256 color (REFERENCE!) glory, as well as our review featured in the first paragraph.
Alongside the cancellation, reports are also coming in that certain individuals were forced to leave the show and multiple complaints were received during the set. Why they were forced to leave is not clear, although an instagram from handle Maniacmeat shows a personal message from a concert attendee posing a question to the musician about his visual artistic integrity.
Previously, Tobacco opened for the band, playing his native (and my native!) hometown of Pittsburgh without much issue. Although, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, frontman for The Flaming Lips gave an assessment of his own show, commenting on Tobacco, figuring the stage name to be a band rather than a singular artist, stating the bill was a “spectacular once-in-a lifetime day in Pittsburgh. We had the weirdos from Tobacco show up and play. … The Flaming Lips might not even exist if not for Jason Spaceman. We love him so much.”
The weird proclamation seems to only be semantic related, as Coyne is aware of the act, quoting Maniac Meat as being one of his favorite LPs in a feature with The Quietus.
Have you attended a Tobacco show? What do you think of the visuals? The comments section, the Twitter, and the Facebook are open for your thoughts.
This is a developing story..
2020k 
Having only been to one Tobacco show, I can’t attest to the grandeur of all “disturbing” images exposed at this show, but I really enjoyed the alien pornography, vis-a-vie “Super Gum” video, that was played on a large screen during the aforementioned song. It was sultry and contained an allure that I have yet to again experience while masturbating to alien-related gangbangs.
I saw tobacco play in loa Angeles at the echo a couple years back. He had a giant screen showing the website chat roulette. Just a bunch of dudes dicks all over the place. All of the visuals aside, he is truly one of the greatest musicians out there. Ever.
I was actually at the Lewiston show tonight. I thought it was hilarious. Black Moth Super Rainbow is nothing like Tobacco solo, but that is the point.
The venue is responsible for researching groups before they have them attend and play. This is just the organizers being lazy and then trying to censor a ridiculously tabooed, somewhat natural (alien fornication hardly constitutes as purely natural) behaviour. The stage crew actually got booed for kicking Tobacco off of the stage.
As far as the people getting ‘offended’ and leaving. If you are offended then that is good; it is meant to offend or be hilarious for those of us who find alien porn funny. But if you are too squeamish to appreciate sex parody, then just do not look. It is not as though the lyrics are overly graphic and/or audible.
I say bravo to Tobacco. It was an awesome show while it lasted and I look forward to seeing you in a better crowd and venue.
And here we see the “edgy” hipster in the wild, too stuck up his own ass to see his pretentious opinions for what they are, the edgy hipster blindly fellates anything that attacks the mainstream or offends someone purely because it appeals to the hipster’s drive to be as left wing as possible while simultaneously trying to still be an individual in an increasingly pastel crowd.
Do you realize that your labeling and phony cynical, holier than thou attitude is pretentious? Are you even aware of your own hypocrisy?
I’ve seen Tobacco play before and to be honest it was actually one of the most entertaining shows I’ve been to. I thought the “disturbing” visuals were actually pretty hilarious and my friends and I had a great time (and it seemed like everyone else at the show did too). I think some people are a little too sensitive, or maybe this was just the wrong crowd.
I was there and Tobacco was amazing so he showed some hot alien action so what the venue knew the crowd they would attract with A Flaming Lips/Tobacco duo, I heard Hamburger lady by throbbing gristle and white rabbit within 5 minutes of eachother on the radio. And he only had two songs left in his set artpark is nothing more than a petty bunch of puritans intent on ruining what we paid good money to see. Props to him for running back on stage and starting the music back up for a few seconds though fight the authorities that should not have authority.
So, I feel sorry for the girlfriend who has no eyelids.
I feel sorry for your shallow tastes
Tobacco Was Some WEird Music the Beats Were Alright But I Hate the Vocals But That Beats Are Alright And The Backdrop Was Their Best Part, TherE Wasn’t Anything Wrong With it At All. Some People Are Just Pathetic And the Girlfriend Thing drives Me Up A Wall. How The Fuck Can They Be That Bad? They Can’t. That Girlfriend Is Just A CUnt, Like You Leave A Concert ,30 Minutes In, before Tfl Who WoULd Kick ass. Get Rid Of That Pathetic CUnt… “I’m Scared of Alien Porn, I Can’t Be Here Omgomg”.. Get The Fuck Outta Here BiTch, Fuck You!
My friends and i were thoroughly entertained, but the issue is that there were multiple people at the show with little kids who were watching the screens showing these images. It was an all ages show, and i know i would have been irate had my kids been there and seen this.
i wish i had been able to watch a tobacco show as a child. total game-changer/mind-blinder
I was at the show at Artpark. He played about 4 songs before they started kicking him off. It was really disappointing because I was there to see him, not the Flaming Lips. Wayne Coyne, also talked a whole bunch about drugs and must have said “Motherfucker” at least ten times. I don’t quite see what makes The Flaming Lips weirdness any more artful than Tobacco’s. If you choose to book an artist, get an idea of what they do beforehand rather than bring them out on stage just to silence them.
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Considering the fact that the Butthole Surfers were notorious in the 80s for showing videos of penis reconstruction surgery during their gigs, this is kid stuff! If you don’t like the show then leave, but don’t get the musician to stop doing his/her thing just because you aren’t hip to it. Where did this sense of entitlement come from anyway?
P.S. Wayne Coyne sucks!
Tobacco sucks donkey dicks… BMSR was a much better band.
I’d be proud to have people send me messages like that. Fuck your girlfriend and the flaming lips (unless its like 1995 again…). Keep it up tobacco, don’t give in to wussy crybaby bullshit! Stay obscene and weird!
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