Asemic Front 2 Review: Ed Sanders & The Fugs at Byrdcliffe Barn (Woodstock, New York, August 23)

The Fugs at Byrdcliffe Barn (Woodstock, New York) 

(August 23, 2025) (Image by Daniel E. Stetson)

The Fugs at Byrdcliffe Barn, August 23, 2025

Review by De Villo Sloan

“The Fugs will NEVER be inducted into the RocknRoll Hall of Fame.”

      - Jann Wenner (according to Ed Sanders)

 

My trusted confidante and advisor Dan Stetson and I went “on the road” to attend The Fugs concert on Saturday, August 23, at Byrdcliffe Barn in Woodstock, New York, that was part of their celebration of the 60^th anniversary year of The Fug’s first concert.

Byrdcliffe Barn is a wonderful venue (and Woodstock is a great artist’s community). Long ago, I heard Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Ed Sanders, Andy Clausen and others give a concert/reading at Byrdcliffe that included songs from Ginsberg’s William Blake album.

A professor of mine – Albert Glover – was a student of Charles Olson’s and spent much of his time on a massive project called The Curriculum of the Soul. Ed Sanders was a contributor to the project. Through Al, I gained an appreciation of Sanders’ literary contributions that were amplified in grad school and beyond. I also heard Ed Sanders deliver the Charles Olson Memorial Lecture at S.U.N.Y. in the eighties.

Ed Sanders founded the band in 1964, and his performance at the age of 86, I believe, puts him on equal footing with Dylan as a contemporary performer pushing boundaries. 

Steve Taylor, on vocals and guitar, joined the band in 1984. Scott Petito on bass and keyboards and Coby Batty on drums and vocals are also longtime Fugs members.

The Fugs at Byrdcliffe Barn (Woodstock, New York) 

(August 23, 2025) (Image by Daniel E. Stetson)

Taylor, Petito and Batty commanded an array of styles ranging from a spacey, experimental jam to a down-on-the-Delta searing, swampy bass and guitar solo. Orphic Sanders stood between them singing and reciting. They matched any heavy metal shredders today. Even drone music slipped in, and some great acoustic guitar playing identified the Fug's ties to the folk music scene of the early sixties.

The Fugs played well-known favorites such as “Slum Goddess” and “Kill for Peace.” But for me the highlight was the classic Fugs songs that required audience participation: “River of Shit” was an impassioned group effort. The Fugs’ exorcism song was transcendental.

The Fugs at Byrdcliffe Barn (Woodstock, New York) 

(August 23, 2025) (Image by Daniel E. Stetson)

The Fugs’ “Exorcism of the White House” in 2017 found the band engaged in political protest against the first Trump administration. The basic concept originated in 1968 when Sanders, Allen Ginsberg and others sought to levitate the Pentagon (Washington, DC) in an effort to end the Vietnam War, recounted in Norman Mailer’s Armies of the Night. The audience and The Fugs at Byrdcliffe joined voices with an urgent message:

 

        “We call upon the Spirits of Eternity

        to raise the White House

        from its foundations

        spin it around

        & cleanse it of Evil & Malevolent Demons…

        “Out Demons, out!

        Out Demons, out!

        Out, Demons, out!

        Out, Demons, out!

        Out, Demons, out!”

 

Ed Sanders invoked two poetic figures who contributed to the band: Tuli Kupferberg (who was mythologized in the Brooklyn Bridge stanza of Howl) and Allen Ginsberg himself. Along with memories of Tuli and his best-known songs, The Fugs played a new Kupferberg composition selected from a large collection of cassette tapes Tuli sent to Sanders.

They also played a song written in honor of Harry Smith who nursed The Fugs through early recording sessions. Tuli Kupferberg and Allen Ginsberg were welcome spirit presences with us at Byrdcliffe.

I went to the concert mostly due to my admiration for Ed Sanders as a literary figure, and I was not disappointed. He used spoken word quotes from Shakespeare (“Tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow”), Heraclitus, Decadent poet Algernon Charles Swineburne as well as a wonderful rendition of Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” set to music.

Sanders spoke of his admiration for Allen Ginsberg (“I thought he was a genius”) and recounted Ginsberg’s report of having a vision of William Blake in the late nineteen forties. Sanders and Taylor have written their own version of “Ah! Sunflower” and shared the piece with the audience. With no disrespect intended, I far preferred The Fugs’ adaptation of Blake compared to Allen Ginsberg’s. I found Sanders’ version of Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence” the most impressive song by far in an unexpectedly Blake-laden evening.

Steven Taylor collaborates on songwriting with Sanders and has collaborated with literary figures including Ginsberg, Kenward Elmslie and Anne Waldman.

As Ed Sanders performed “Ah! Sunflower” he seemed to channel Allen’s gestures as he had once passionately performed the song. For a moment in the blazing lights, it seemed to me Sanders became Allen Ginsberg carrying Blake's vision from the cosmos, but I am sure that was just a subjective reaction.

The Fugs had excellent, tight sound and great playing. They created a remarkable montage of music, spoken word and visual image with much audience participation.

 

-             - De Villo Sloan

    Elbridge, New York, USA

    August 25, 2025