Las Vegas Country Saloon and Brandy Vinyl presents The Melvins .
The Melvins made it to Vegas on their 50 shows in 51 days ‘break the Guiness record’ tour, and the club was packed for show 49. This 50 date tour the Melvins ‘lite’ened the cast with a slimmed down 3 piece power trio, with Buzz Osborne of course on vocals and guitar, Dale Crover as sole drummer, and upright bassist Trevor Dunn.
The night started with a couple of suitably weird opening bands, and then a short celebration of Dale Crover’s birthday, as MC host Jenn O Cide (Motley Crue Extravaganza) showed off her unusual candle lighting technique for the cake before Crover was brought out on stage to successfully blow them out while the fans sang Happy Birthday.
On to the show… Dunn was first on stage, looking like Angus Young traded the Gibson for the upright bass, sending out eery sounds and setting the stage for Buzz to enter in his customary ceremonial weird monk robed glory. Crover waved before taking his spot behind the drums, donned in quasi warrior garb, but hey, halloween was only… a mere week away. Can never start Halloween too early in Vegas.
Eye Flys set the night off, and Buzz and the lite crew rumbled through some punk metal past with “Hooch”, “Captain Pungent” and “Berthas” but the night was concentrated on a set very heavy with material from this year’s Freak Puke cd released in mid 2012, with almost the entire release mixed into the nights set. Mid show a mosh pit finally got going (granted, we aren’t as young as we used to be) and the crowd packed against the stage through the second half, with “Shevil” from Stoner Witch finishing up the show. No “Honey Bucket”, but plenty of mystic sludge metal to keep you satisfied this go round. Dale Crover yelled “Let’s get sh*t faced”, and called it a night.
The tour may be labeled Lite, but the show was nothing near it, and even as a 3 piece the Melvins pack a wallop of their own bizarre, hulking hard core tunes. The Melvins kick ass. The tour is over but don’t miss out on grabbing the new cd here (http://www.amazon.com/Freak-Puke-Melvins-Lite/dp/B007NA9YPW), and keep up with the Melvins, merch, dates and music at http://themelvins.net/
(Sidebar: Trevor Dunn is former Mr Bungle and present Tomahawk bassist, both projects with Mike Patton (Faith No More). Patton had recruited Kevin Rutmanis as bassist (former Melvins’ bassist) for Tomahawk when the band got started. Dunn took Kevin Rutmanis’ place in Tomahawk. Six degrees hehe. Dunn was playing out again days after the Lite tour finished at Voodoo Experience with Tomahawk, sans the upright.)
