“People want to get onstage and stagedive, but if you run into me, you’re not coming back. There’s a Travis Bean-shaped dent in someone’s head”: Duane Denison on the inspired return of the Jesus Lizard – and that time he tried to sell Steve Howe a guitar

Duane Denison of The Jesus Lizard plays a chord on his Travis Bean electric guitar, in this black-and-white live shot from the audience's POV.

Each time the Jesus Lizard make their way back to the stage, it’s cause for celebration. Even so, when the hard-bruising rock quartet dropped into Nashville’s Blue Room venue within the Third Man Records building this past June, the excitement was markedly different.

Just the day before, the group – who have been maintaining an off-and-on reunion phase since 2008 – officially announced Rack, their first full-length release since the late ’90s. The show likewise featured the live debut of Hide & Seek, the record’s manically concussive lead-off track, which easily proves that the Jesus Lizard’s confrontational spirit remains intact nearly 40 years after the project first got off the ground.