Once in a blue moon, genius spins out of a tornado of music, drugs and madness.
Beach Boy Brian Wilson may be the best-known survivor of that perfect storm, but there are others, such as Texas musician and ’60s psychedelic pioneer Roky Erickson, who played a raw, raucous rock show Tuesday at Webster Hall.
Erickson, ex-frontman of the 13th Floor Elevators, performed songs from “True Love Cast Out All Evil,” his first CD of original material in 14 years. He looked like a happy hobo, smiled like Buddha and sang like kicked gravel.
Performing once again, Erickson has reason to smile: More than for his former band’s 1966 hit, “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” Erickson, 62, is notorious for losing his mind.
In 1969, rather than face a 10-year prison sentence in Texas for possession of a single marijuana cigarette, he copped an insanity plea and spent three years at the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
His reality — already scrambled by soaking his brain in LSD and by schizophrenia — was totally altered by electroshock therapy, heavy medication and other treatments.
For the next three decades, Erickson was mired in madness, mismanagement and poverty. His younger brother helped him reclaim his life, winning guardianship and getting him proper care in 2001.
After the documentary about his life, “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” came out in 2005, he began to perform again, first locally and then nationally. At Webster Hall, the house was packed for Erickson’s brand of blues-rock psychedelia that’s influenced everyone from ZZ Top to punks such as Black Flag.
Fan Jay Kleinmann, 35, who owns Greenpoint’s Second Chance Saloon, called Erickson a personal “hero.” No doubt Erickson could appreciate the bar’s name — and that his music is on the jukebox. “Roky inspires me to do what I love, no matter what, and not disappear after falling into the cracks,” says Kleinmann.
Erickson, who was backed by his album collaborators Okkervil River, played an eclectic program that ranged from the 12-bar blues rock of “Don’t Shake Me Lucifer” to garage punk like “Two-Headed Dog” to the near doo-wop of “I Walked With a Zombie.”
Sure, sometimes his singing was as off-kilter as those song titles. But Erickson’s shy, eager-to-please stage presence made the fans forgive his flaws.
Erickson saved his hit “You’re Gonna Miss Me” for the encore. While it’s a great breakup song, it’s also become an autobiographical tune for Roky Erickson. We missed him when he was gone.