|
Click on an image below for the big pic
People showing up thinking they were gonna get a nice gentle nostalgic honkytonk kind of a show and getting surprised and riveted by the reality that is the Melvins! Riveted because they were too scared to leave or because they secretly were digging it! Most were digging it.
It was great to see one young lady's Grammy right up front gettin' a kick out of Hank III as punk rock incarnate! She was into it! It was too loud for her after a spell, but she was being ALIVE! So much was going on with the music and the atmosphere. The metal heads and punkers, the rednecks aand the tourists. Cattlemen and truckers. Retired folk like your parents or grandparents. Whiskeymen and soda sippers. stoners and straight edgers(Buzz, Dale, Kevin). Clerks and slackers. Hippies and Your BOSS were for the most part all digging the Melvins! There were a few sour faces out there, but they just couldn't hang. One thing, though, I believe that Dave from NOG and his friend Brad were the youngest ones there (18). But every other age group seemed equally represented up to about 80 (hehehe).
The trip to the restroom was something else due to the fact there was an attendant. FIVE kinds a ciggs arranged around an ashtray, dishes full of gum and candy, every kind of cologne imaginable, mouth wash, condoms. It was ridiculously overboard hilarious. It's difficult to fathom, the Melvins and Hank III w/ their "Fuck You corporate assholes we'll do it ourselves"attitudes in this obvious beacon, no, this Mecca to capitali$m. But that for me was part of the "mind fuck" of the affair.
Sorry, but I was having a REAL good time and I didn't track the set list at all. It was some of the most fun I've had at the Melvins, though! From what I remember and looking at the Minneapolis list, in no order they included:
Snake Appeal
Let It All Be
Wispy
We Reach
Night Goat
Cherub
Youth of America (KICK ASSSS!!! GO DALE!!!!)
The House of Blues had their pro video going on the monitors which wereeverywhere. I didn't see them, but there were monitors in the restroom. You could see the show while you go. They're supposedly gonna upload video to their website, where they may charge per download. After they hack it up,most likely.
This is the tallest stage I've seen the Melvins on except for maybe the stage on the Lollapalooza tour. I'm 5'6" and the stage was at eye level. It wasn't that crowded so there was plenty of room for moving around and seeing different angles. A little slam dancing in the relatively docile (by LA standards) pit was a welcome sensation for me! Except for Dale's drums, they were using the gear and wearing the same Muumuus as in the pics at Brian's site. I'll have pics later. Kevin didn't look mean to me. I'd have to say that Buzz is in the best physical shape I've ever seen them in. Not only has he lost weight, he just seemed very into it.
Hank III totally blew the Melvins presence away! It must've been the combined spirit of all the different kinds of people there. But, yeah, he started with some cool moderately rowdy Honky Tonk. I haven't heard anything at all from him before this show, except for what he's done w/the Melvins. I understand he was doing songs from his latest. Anyway, the songs progressively got rowdier and Honkier! Then they got nasty and booze hardened! Then they got Punk!! Duane Denison from Jesus Lizard on guitar,Shelton on acoustic w/pickup then switching to a bad ass Misfits head electric and swinging his long hair braid, a huge bearded guy pounding those drums, and the kick ass bald w/2 foot hair braid electric fiddle guy.Electric fiddle guy was doing some gnarly licks that sounded like guitar. I'm sorry I don't remember their names, but they put on one HELL of a greatshow!
(Meanwhile, his next recording, an unfettered expression of his punk rockside tentatively titled This Ain’t Country, will feature such un-Nashvillecats as guitarist Duane Denison from Chicago industrial noisemakers theJesus Lizard (who is already a member of Hank’s touring band), and former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. In discussing this side of his musical personality, “hellbilly” is the term most frequently employed. )
It was something I couldn't pass up, so I had to get in the honky pit. I caught a few "gentle punches" here and there. All in good fun. I got to sing "White Trash" at the top of my lungs. I still have a touch of laryngitis. I had my two mysterious buddies. These guys had nothing to do with each other.One was a drunk red neck off work from the tow yard. The other was Cooter.There were just my buddies and commenting on the kick ass show Shelton was putting on. Heeeallllllll-yea!!! It was nothing less that a good trip to see several good ol' boys lighting up their doobs during Hank. It was a great atmospheric effect. Barriers broken down and people partying it up together. No electronica here, though. REAL music straightfrom the GUT! Like I said, people were sober and people were drunk. Everyone was doing their thing and getting along. For me, that's what it's all about. Not if my way is better than your way. Party on!
I don't vouch for validity, so take it or leave it. Stuff overheard:
Fantomas to go down under
Melvins may tour Europe early 2001
Melvins to reissue (entire? remaster?) catalog
Still possible: a new Melvins release prior to Mans Ruin
Dave's looking forward to recording them
It was great to meet Crushr24 and El Justin! Along w/Dave and Brad from NOG, we had a really great time. I hope to do the Melvins Las Vegas event again!
--gene
This site © 1996-2010 
Gene Candelaria
