Before diving headlong into the seedy world of Tucson-based performer Bob Log III, you should be aware of his several idiosyncrasies. To begin with, you're never going to see his face, at least not until you arrive at the merch table. The whole time he's onstage, he'll be wearing a jumpsuit and a motorcycle helmet fitted with a lo-fi headset mic that makes him sound like he's singing over the phone.
What you are going to see are some breasts. Whether he's playing a dive bar or a culturally astute venue like The Warhol Museum, Bob isn't about to abrogate his tradition of playing the song "Clap Your Tits," where he invites ladies to bounce on his knee while percussing their bazookas in time to the music.
Other than the girls, you won't see anybody else up there, because Log ain't some namby-pamby singer-songwriter who needs a backing group to fill out his sound. In fact, he is the band. Keeping time by pounding a bass-drum pedal on his guitar case, he considers his ensemble to have five members: left foot, right foot, left hand (for the guitar slide), right hand (for picking -- some have falsely claimed it's actually a "monkey's paw"), and pie-hole. And that's all he really needs to whip a crowd into a bacchanalian frenzy.
Right now he's coasting on a ringing endorsement from Tom Waits. When asked by Time Out London whom he's listening to, Waits said, "Well, I really like Wu Tang Clan. And then there's this guy, Bob Log. It's just the loudest, strangest stuff you've ever heard. You don't understand one word he's saying. I like people who glue macaroni to a piece of cardboard and paint it gold."
Bob Log III with Uncle Scratch's Gospel Revival. 8 p.m. Fri., Sept. 21. The Andy Warhol Museum, 117 Sandusky St., North Side. $10. 412-237-8300 or www.warhol.org
