The MELVINS Shack - MELVINS on the Road...August 1999

MELVINS on the ROAD
AUGUST 1999

AUGUST TOUR DATES

1 Sunday BLACK CAT Washington, D.C.	2 Monday off	3 Tuesday CAT'S CRADLE Carrboro, NC
4 Wednesday Spartanburg, SC	5 Thursday Birmingham, AL	6 Friday EXIT IN Nashville, TN
7 Saturday Athens, GA	8 Sunday off	9 Monday COTTON CLUB Atlanta, GA
10 Tuesday JACK RABBITS Jacksonville, FL	11 Wednesday SAPPHIRE SUPPER CLUB Orlando, FL	12 Thursday STATE THEATRE St. Petersburg, FL
13 Friday Tallahassee, FL	14 Saturday Pensacola, FL	15 Sunday off
16 Monday HOUSE OF BLUES New Orleans, LA	17 Tuesday NUMBERS Houston, TX	18 Wednesday San Antonio, TX
19 Thursday Austin, TX	20 Friday TREES Dallas, TX Opening for MR BUNGLE!	21 Saturday Tulsa, OK
22 Sunday Oklahoma City, OK	23 Monday LAUNCHPAD Albuquerque, NM	24 Tuesday off
25 Wednesday Tucson, AZ	26 Thursday MASON JAR Phoenix, AZ	27 Friday CASBAH San Diego, CA
28 Saturday TROUBADOUR West Hollywood, CA with HOVERCRAFT	29 Sunday GALAXY THEATRE Santa Ana, CA with HOVERCRAFT	30 Monday off
31 Tuesday YUCATAN Santa Barbara, CA

REVIEWS

Went the the Black Cat in DC last night and saw the melvins along with melt banana and vaz...we got there at 4 even though the doors opened at 8:30 because we were afraid we were going to get lost...when we arrived at the club, buzz was outside talking with melt banana and some other fans...we got an opportunity to talk to him and he seemed to welcome the conversation...we talked about how dave grohl is an investor in the black cat and that he doesn't talk to the melvins anymore...we talked about how my friend (who was with us) is named "JEFFFFFF THOOOOOOMMMMAAASSS"...and we talked about how my band played the same club the melvins did...in the 4 hours of sitting in front of the club we noticed that the melvins' ryder truck had been modified to say 'www.yellowf uck.com....instead of yellowtruck.com...pretty funny...anyways, on with the show...vaz was the opening act...2 members of hammerhead doing rock and roll as a two piece...very good...good opening act for the melvins...melt banana rocked my whole fucking day...they were by far the most mind-fucking musical experience i have ever had...their guitar player has a ton of cool toys to make noise with...i definately recommend checking them out...now onto the big show...songs included: the bit, bloat, amazon, AMAZON, manky, let got be your gardener, youth of america, 2 new ones off of bootlicker, and eye flys...the best i've ever heard at that...dale gonged around after the show on that huge gong he has...and that was it...kevin's bass rig cut out at the end of amazon, so buzz did some punishing noise...and since i was right in the front...right in front of buzz, i took the biggest beating...very loud...very good...very melvins....after the show we talked with the guys, and dale was pretty happy to hear that i liked altamont a whole lot...then we went home...the end

MIke

The Cats Cradle was packed with people and i must say that the MELVINS were well worth the 3 hour drive and 4 hour wait...The opening bands were pretty good, but honestly i would hate to be in a band opening for the Melvins...The Melvins blew everyone away. i have never heard them that loud and standing at the front of the stage right against a monitor i thought my eardrums were going to burst. the Setlist was the same as the other shows-no manalishi-i guess they got burntout on playing this but it was amazing and EyeFlys really is worth hearing live! Buzz and Dale were extremely nice to talk to, but honestly Kevin scared the hell out of me. Very Evil man...i grabbed a Two Headed Doll...leave it to the Melvins to come up with the best merchandising...

WithTeeth@aol.com

well i got to the Cats Cradle eary (almost 3 hours early) because there was nothing really worth doing other than waiting. After sitting outside for awhile Dale came out to use the pay phone, next Buzz came out so i just chatted to him about how much of a pain it was to take an 9 hour bus ride on a two hour car drive. yeehaw. Anyway Melt Bananna opened and they were Insane. I loved it. If you havent heard them they are definatly worth checking out. The Melvins came on and Kevin did the feedback intro for Manky. That then mutated into See How Pretty, See how Smart-amazon-AMAZON-new song-The Bit-Bloat-Let God Be Your Gardener-WithTeeth-HogLeg-Youth of America-new song-EyeFlys...Anyway The Sound was really really good and i was suprised to hear Hog Leg...i picked up a very violent Two Headed Doll...

--Dave

well i sure am glad that someone who new the song titles better than i do. thanks dave. all i have to say is what a fucking experience, my first melvins live experience. one thing dave lacked to mention was the first band who was from minneapolis (sp?) they were called Vaz. VERy incredible, two people with the sound of five. melt banana was one of the most amusing things i have ever witnessed. reminded me a lot of fantomas. (shut up, i know who was first) even though i would go at least 30 minutes out of my way to see their show again, i wouldnt buy their cd. a couple things just got way repetitive. but then ............... the melvins. you already got their setlist. so i will just fill in the blanks and then hopefully MERRY DEATH will give us some more info that we left out. they started very noisy. feedback and slow morphed into their set. the stage was setup with dale's set facing the crowd and the second set with its back to the crowd. they started out with both dale and daniel goldsomething, nobody seems to remember his name, maybe somebody on the list will know. anyway, started out with him. tell you the truth its really seemed like he had only practiced those parts for a couple of days. he kept messing up and really seemed uncomfortable. but the sound was incredible. he definetly filled his part. they played for awhile, then introduced that guy. said something about how he made porn. they went on to talk about their "new" bass player kevin. they spent about five minutes trying to figure out what band he was from. it was finally decided he was from soul asylum and buzz made fun of hmi by calling him a little run away train. this was all RIGHt before eye flies. they talked for like ten minutes. buzzo said that they played at the cat's cradle way back in the day right before they recorded eye flies. said that "none of you were here" as he waved his hand over the crowd. then he went on to say something about how when they played there last time some skin heads told them to, "GET YOUR HIPPIE SHIT OFF THE STAGE!" then asked if their where any skinheads in the crowd. my guitarist screamed out and buzzo said "HEY there's one" then he told the crowd to say "GET YOU HIPPIE SHIT OFF THE STAGE!!" and kevin stood there with one of the most evil looks i have ever seen staring straight at allan saying, "YEAH Pussy, SAY it, Pussy! COME on SAY it!" that dude is FUCKED!!! i have gained a new respect for the man. i got one of the shirts with little girl on it and two dolls. one has a sark for a pecker, balls and pubes. its one of the crying babies too. the other one has blood all over it and very conveiniently came with the accompaniment of a third baby doll head seperate from it with some sort of insect for a body. thats about it. DAMN my feet stink. YOUR TURN MEREDITH!!!! GIVE IT TO US!!!

heeby jeeby

well jesus christ RICK, i dont think you left me anything to say...pretty much covered it all. =) the guy who was playing drums is Brian Lasby...Lansby...L....B....Bisby? Brian something or other. i think he does those little music comics/drawings for the Spectator (which are usually hilarious!). he played drums on an older Melvins album, youll have to find someone else to tell you which one because i dont know. RICK, your ears are better than mine, i thought he did an excellent job, it sounded so killer! and he didnt seem nervous to me, he had more of a "holy-shit-im-playing-with-the-melvins-this-is-so-rad" look than a nervous look ....but youre right RICK, he didnt know he was going to be playing with them until a couple days before the show. anyway. i just stood there dazed. their live show is so hypnotic. i caught Vaz's last song...i give them credit for drawing my interest, but i cant say id want to sit through an entire set. Melt banana was wickeh!wickeh!wickeh!wickeh! good, great live band, but a little too much of that high pitched wickehwickehwickehwickeh jargen. good nonetheless. the melvins were amazing...duh. they played lots of songs. some old ones, some new ones. and ya know that one that has that slow part? they played that one too! well im not cool, i didnt talk to the band or anything....i dont really have too much to say about the show other than it fucking rocked. thanks for saying hi rick, it was good talking to you =)
~M~
questions:
whats with kevins "dancing?"
does anyone know if the last time the melvins were in NC (what buzz was talking about) if they played with the Obsessed? did anyone see the Melvins/Obsessed tour?

I wanted to go to the B'ham show the night before, but it was 21+. Bastards!
Anyway, first off was Vas from Minneapolis. I didn't like 'em that much. Just a guitarist and drummer, for those interested.
Next came Melt-Banana. I am an avid Melt-Banana fan, so this part may be skipped by those who don't care for 'em. For those that don't know, they are a four-piece band from Tokyo that plays bizarre noise rock. I saw them a few weeks before when they played at Atlanta. This time they played just as well, but they were much more into it -- because the crowd was so receptive, I think. Here's an approximate set list:
Scrubber
Sratch or Stitch
RRaGG
Circle Jack (Chase the Magic Words, Lego Lego)
Sick ZIP Everywhere
Disposable Weathercock [some song I hadn't heard before]
His Name is Mickey (At Last She Got Him...)
We Love Choco-Pa
Some Kind of Id
So Unfilial Rule
Mind Thief
[some song off of Charlie -- the one where Yasuko says "Wake up, I'm going to throw you out!"]
Tapir's Flown Away
Surfin' USA
Spathic!
Picnic in Panic
Anyway, a few nights ago, looking for Melt-Banana stuff on the Internet, I found out that their touring drummer's former band was called (get ready) Satanic Hell Slaughter. So while he was breaking down his drumset after their set, me and my friends started chanting "Saanic Hell Slaughter! Satanic Hell Slaughter!;" the poor guy heard us and immediately bent over in laughter. He then returned our flashing metal signs and shook a few of our hands from stage, laughing the whole time. The Moral of the Story: If you're in a band called Satanic Hell Slaughter, it will follow you wherever you go.
Anyway, he set up his drumset directly opposite Dale's, so when the Melvins took over, he and Dale played the first song together -- exactly the same thing, too! Then he left while Melvins played another Maggot song, and then he came out for another Maggot song. I thought this was really cool. Anyway, they pretty much played the same set as has been told on this list. Kevin seemed extremely pissed the whole night (which I think might be a stage act of some kind). When it came time for talkin', Buzz told us about Kevin being on probation for statutory rape, the punchline being that it was an underage boy (not a girl) that he fucked. This started a chant of "NAMBLA! NAMBLA!" in the audience. Then Buzz asked if anyone in the crowd was related to Nathan Bedford Forrest (Confederate general, founder of the KKK). This REALLY pissed off one girl in the audience. Then Buzz said that Kevin was related to Gen. Forrest and that they both got in trouble for statutory rape. This pissed folks off even more. Finally, Buzz thanked the other two bands and had Melt-Banana's drummer come out to take a bow -- quoth Buzz, "he's a demon in the sack!" The whole night it seemed like they were trying to piss off the crowd, which was mostly composed of drunk redneck retards.
Anyway, I think the Melvins were better than when they opened for Helmet, but they didn't top that 3-set night in support of Stag. All in all, one enjoyable show.

Cole Mitchell

Just rolled back into Birmingham from the Atlanta show tonight (err..last night)..
Bootlicker's out and with them, if it wasn't already... don't look for "metal" melvins.. imagine a whole album of the clean guitar songs on Stag. I love it.
Show.
Vaz was mighty impressive with their sound being so full, but the singer's voice was obnoxious.
Melt Banana was awesome!
But, to the meat of things... Melvins played (and I'm not really good with song titles, bear with me) most of the previously listed sets... had both the drummer from Vaz and Melt Banana play along on the first song (unsure as to what it is) and then they came back for AMAZON. Played a couple of the tracks from Bootlicker..amazon seemed sloppy, and so was the first song. Got better when they played (the bit?) off of Stag, and then another Stag song (I'm terrible w/ names, the CD's in the car...the give me 46, give me 45 song)... Youth (of/in) America was great, and the 12 minute version of Eye Fly's almost makes up for them not playing Boris...but, that song is at a snails pace, and Kevin was gyrating like it was speed metal...
The moment with buzz.. right before Eye Fly's as the closer, Buzz spent a good five minutes talking to the crowd.. He told the story of the NAMBLA/Kevin/Statutory Rape of a Boy story, and then told about the Nathaniel Bedford Forrest thing in Nashville, where the girl in the dressing room said he might as well called the whole crowd (if your offended by the non-pc colloquialism, don't read it) "niggers." So, Buzzo now claims that his new name is "Nigger Loving Jew Boy"....
Hmm. I'm rambling, oh well...
Oh yeah, Kevin was walking around the show earlier, and I did not realize who he was... has a really bad (looks like Forrest Gump) hair cut, and was wearing a shirt that had Cobain's head with crossed shotguns under it with the caption "Teen Spirit USA"...
I need some sleep.

Hom

Last night Honky opened the show. These guys are generally what I tend to refer to as "Good Ole Boys who play Southern Bastard Rock". What's up with their drummer anyway? He's got hillarious facial expressions when he plays.
Following Honky was an eclectic trippy band called Hovercraft that played one song for about 45 minutes that sounded like an intro. They were totally instrumental. I kept expecting them to break into some lyrics but it never happened.
Finally the Melvins took the stage around 11pm. I'm not very good with all the names of the songs they played but I do know they played the following (not in any particular order):
* The Bit
* The Bloat
* amazon, Amazon
They finished the show at Midnight with the very first song on their very first album (does anyone know what their first album is called?)
Over all I'd say that this show was not the best Melvins experience I've ever seen. The Houdini tour and the Stag Tour were my favorites to date. Buzz rambled on about how he was the captain of the football team in high school, and he signed all of our yearbooks, and he graduated with honors, and that he went through college and got his masters in Brain Surgery (all spoken very facetiously). I think Buzz was horribly bored last night. The crowd wasn't very energetic either.

Boudga
ICQ 665883

Well, where do I start...
Dale sat in w/ Honky tonite for "Simple Man" and that was awesome.
Hovercraft was cool, but put me to sleep. Didn't Chrome do this before?
Melvins ruled tonite. Great show. Right at the beginning of the Wipers tune, some of the kids broke out in a fist fight; ironic humor. My biggest curiosity tonite was to checkout and meet Mr. D. Raymond. But I found out that Mr. Raymond hates Texas and hopped on a flight to Mexico after the New Orleans show. Dan, dont you know the hottest chicks reside in Tejas? heheh.
Kevin was badass! Kevin is by far the best bassman the Melvins have ever had!!! I hav to admit, Mark was getting old. Dale was awesome and his gong at the end sounded amazing! Buzz spoke/lectured to the crowd...something about eating lettuce and tomatoes w/your hamburger...something about the death penalty in Texas...and that Kevin wasn't only in the Cows, but was also in Husker Du etc etc whatever..heh.
I had a blast tonight. I picked up a copy of "the bootlicker" and im checking it out right now (weird cool stuff)...I'll probably broadcast the CD on the internet again this Sunday at noon CST (more latter). I like the way bootlicker ends...heheh.
Now for something really odd. Michael Mills aka REM bass dude was in the house tonite. No shit, REM played San Antonio last night. I was pissing next to him in the bathroom and I said "come on man, your a Melvins fan?" Mills just laughed saying "Hey, its my night off." Go figure....
I'll probably head to Austin tomorrow nite.

crushr24

The show last night in Austin was way better than San Antonio. The sound and crowd was better. Great, Great show!!!
Dale played w/ Honky again on "Simple Man"...really hilarious seeing Lance (the drummer) take center stage, in his boxers, doing the vocals. Classic.
Melvins show was excellent. One of the best shows I've seen! Kevin, once again was great! In my opinion, Kevin is the best thing to happen to the band.
After trying to bum 50 bucks off the crowd, Buzz turned on Kevin, making fun of his handicap... Buzz referred to him as "gimp". Kevin must have one leg longer than the other. He wears one of those big shoes. Oh yeah, nice t-shirt Kevin, "I luv Cock".

crushr24

just got back from dallas, great show i must say. took WAAYYY to long to set up. even the crowd of regular old metalheads liked it. cant remember exact songs the bit, the bloat, amazon,youth of america?, eye flys? i'm no musician, but mark was visually more appealing than kevin, who bears a resemblance to dave matthews and gyrates like the soy bomb guy. i had to leave early, how was bungle? had sold out of all melvins items by the time i got there at 9:30, so get there early

Rorschach

First, they DIDN'T play eye flys AND they DIDNT sell mevins shirts or dolls. the sound was A LOT worse than the last time I saw them in this venue and the set list was way too short. Mr. Bungle had alot cleaner sound than the melvins and there performance upstaged the melvins. My biggest complaint was the sound....muddy, no vocals, drums werent as loud and there tone wasnt low enough. Hovercraft sounded good too....... and i still had fun

Kitchens

I saw the Melvins play in Oklahoma City last night and it was intense. I was amazed by Hovercraft. They convinced me to buy some of their stuff.
setlist(in no order):
amazon
AMAZON
Manky
see how pretty, see how smart
let it all be
hog leg
with teeth
the bloat
the bit
youth of america
let god be your gardener
a mellow version of "boris"
Five star show. I talked to the band for a second afterwards. I'd met them a couple of years ago on the Helmet tour. Buzz recognized me but Dale didn't. About the whole bass player issue, i'd have to say Kevin has taken Mark's place for my favorite. He was really entertaining onstage and much nicer than Mark in person. All in all, they were pleased with the crowd and the show.
Heavy as hell.

-cory

All hail King Buzzo. A King among kings.
Last Saturday night, the show that the Melvins put on at the Troubadour was THE best I've been lucky to attend.
It was packed, too. I don't know who got the word out that the Melvins rock, but there were all kinds of folks there. I saw at least three parents w/kids (two Moms and a Dad), youngsters and oldsters (I thought I was old, but there were some seniors there). Most every race and faction of human you want to name was there. It was like Eutopia Melvins style.
Well, Beth Liebling (Sadie 7, I think) finally got her shit together and decided to show up, so Hovercraft was on. Ya think they might be heavily influenced by Sid Barrett and early Pink Floyd? I do. It was definitely trippy psychadellia. I would've dropped some acid, had I known what to expect. They had the MTV connection going with a film loop of bugs and eyes and fire fire fire and stuff going on a screen behind the drummer. It was pretty cool for the first fifteen minutes and then I kinda got real tired of em. But I respect them for doing what they do. More power to them.
At last, Dale tuned his drums, Kevin's bass was tuned, and Buzz's guitars were set up. Out they came and proceeded to rock the hell out of the Troubadour. Buzz was in top form and the only time I saw him fuck up was when he was moving backwards and stumbled on his effects rig. He stepped on his volume and cut his guitar out, but quickly fixed things. He was really full of energy. Thrashing his head and getting down low to the stage. He was sweating up a storm and the group of us in front of the stage in his line of fire got drenched. When he'd sing you could see the stream of humidity shooting out his mouth. We had been anointed! I got more than a couple drops in my mouth, which kinda grossed me out, but I thought what the hell...it's Buzzo! This mohawk kid kept vaulting on my shoulders and grabbing at Buzz's guitar and Buzz didn't seem to mind. I tried to keep that kid back.
I can never keep great track of the set, but they did:
amazon
AMAZON
manky
see how pretty, see how smart
let it all be
hog leg
with teeth
the bloat
the bit
let it all be
jew boy flower head
youth of america
let god be your gardener
eye flys
Tool Adam did a couple songs with his keyboard/synth. But, the coolest thing he did was come out and play guitar on Eye Flys. He has an effects peddle strapped ONTO his guitar! And did some very interesting things. What a musician and technician. I can hardly wait for the next Tool project.
Before Eye Flys, they took a breather and Buzz spoke to the audience. He thanked us all for supporting them and coming to this and so many shows. He said how he was glad to be back home in LA and how this is the best place to live. He specifically mentioned Montana, Idaho, Maine and Florida as places that sucked. He claimed that the Idahoans told them to get out and that people only go to Florida to die. He told us we didn't realize how lucky we were. Someone yelled at him to get a haircut and he said something along the line of, "Yeah, right. I think I'll start taking fashion tips from my audience. What do you guys think I should do with my hair? Should I cut it? What about my clothes? Should I change them? FUCK NO! I'll change them when I feel like it! I'll take a bath when I feel like it! Not when somebody says I should! People tell me I should got back to school. Back to school? Why would I want to do that? Fuck no!" Anyway, Buzz thanked us for supporting the new albums and to look forward to the next releases.
Saw Dan Raymond lurking in the shadows of the VIP balcony. How was the view above the masses? Was I seeing things or was Leif Garrett up there too?
Hey, how long has Buzz been using only five strings on his guitars? This is the first time I noticed it. Maybe Adam influenced this? Kevin had another "I LOVE COCK" tshirt. Dale had NAMBLA and Honky stickers on his bass drum. The drummer from Hovercraft set up his drums facing Dale and he did a couple songs with the Melvins. I wasn't able to talk to anyone from the band this time. I didn't get a double-headed doll, or anything, but my friend got one for his ten year old daughter. She dug it and they're saving it in a big plastic ziplock bag.
Check out my pictures of the show.

gene

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