EPISODE 3
Beer bottles smash against the chicken wire of a tiny stage.
CLEMENTINE needs to be held back from attacking the few people in the crowd that boo them. Another gig, another failure.
That night they drive after the gig. SOLEMN.
Fin starts to console them but ends up tearing them a new asshole. He tells them that they are way too concerned with being loved but the truth is, it’s easier to hate them. AIDEN hides in his headphones and watches the weird lights dance outside in the empty night sky as they drive.
They camp on the side of the road on their dirty mattresses. They go to sleep angry and wake up in the baking sun with flies in their mouths. They can’t even remember to camp in the shade.
They wash and eat breakfast in a truck stop. As LENNY comes out of the shower block he comes face to face with a naked man covered in tattoos shaving with a cutthroat razor. This is STARMAN. LENNY feels like the man is staring into his soul and legs it out back to the car in his towel as white as a ghost.
JESUS IS COMING says the billboard, which the kids rightly think is hilarious. It looms over the weird and tiny town called God’s Earth. As the band and crew roll into town the streets are empty as most of the inhabitants spend their time in bunkers and underground waiting for the Rapture.
They are in town to perform on a local radio station to promote their upcoming gigs. Fin explains that the radio tower is so large people will hear it for 100’s of miles, not just the weirdos of God’s Earth. All they need to do is pretend that they are willing to “get right” with god.
They have to meet the the Pastor and his flock to gain approval before they are allowed to grace god’s airwaves.
In a dazzling display of lies and deception they are allowed to go on air.
For a couple of criminals, FATS and AUDIE are surprisingly against the idea of telling white lies in a house of worship. They seem to have a variety pack of crackpot spiritual and religious beliefs. They say it will create bad juju and if they are not careful and that the MIN MIN will come and get them. FATS explains that the MIN MIN are spirits that try to lure travellers to the dark side. He vividly describes the lights that AIDEN sees often. Although they teased LENNY at the time, they say STARMAN is a MIN MIN in disguise.
We meet RIDELLE, part of the congregation, drunk and in no way right with god herself. She is inappropriately taken with AIDEN.
They stay at the local motel where RIDELLE lives. AIDEN meets her daughter WHATEVER who rescues him from her sexual advances. WHATEVER shows AIDEN a box of vinyl and VHS tapes of music that she has stashed. Just like his.
Whilst the rest of the crew are out looking for fun with RIDELLE. AIDEN stays in the hotel room glued to the TV and is entranced by an old BBC interview with LITTLE RICHARD. The way he preens himself and modulates from soft and feminine to preacher LOUD has AIDEN mesmerised. He starts to mimic his hero and the TV almost becomes a mirror.
Later, at the radio station, the band sit opposite the DJ who has an unfathomably deep voice and watch him sing a really creepy a capella version of MacArthur Park to a female admirer who has called in. The band are aghast.
Earlier Ridelle has plied the roadies, Lenny and Clem with White Russians and they are drunk. LENNY and CLEM think the DJ is ridiculous and start misbehaving. AIDEN rescues the interview by quoting Little Richard and in a strange and enigmatic display of mimicry, convinces the DJ to continue.
They are invited to play a song, live on air which is also transmitted live via their public access TV channel.
Not feeling well, FIN gets some air. Clouds are starting to conspire in the sky above. Weird. His cough is getting worse. He goes to the Caddy and pulls his medication from the glove box. He turns on the radio and swallows a handful of the pills.
In the studio, the band take their place ready to play. In honor of their MacArthur Park intro AIDEN starts a capella.
“Well, I said come on now...
Cocksucking Sammy get your motherfucking mammy”
LENNY and CLEM join in like a weird barbershop trio.
“We’re going downtown to the cocksucker’s ball
Fuck, suck and fight ‘til the beginning of broad daylight.”
Across the town, angry parishioners are shocked at what is coming out of their radios. The Pastor is listening while he eats dinner and nearly spits his boiled potatoes across the room.
Back in the studio they finish their doowop and continue COCKSUCKERS BALL with guitars blazing.
The technicians scramble to try and stop the telecast but cant, as FATS and AUDIE step in and insist that the show MUST go on.
Young god-fearing teenagers run to turn on their TVs to catch what is happening. It seems that BIT IN THE FACE no longer need to be loved and they are doing it LIVE on TV.
FIN sits in the car taking his medication. He doesn’t look that well but hearing them on the RADIO turns his cough into fits of laughter.
Outside the car, It starts to rain. It starts to rain hard. The red desert dust is drenched.