| Glen Parva went to see The Melvins at the Rescue Rooms | ||||||
Welcome to the world of sludge-metal! The Melvins are one of those bands who are probably better known for who they inspired, than for their own music. As the forefathers of the 1990’s Seattle grunge, a whole scene’s worth of bands would potentially not exist without them. Indeed, back in the early eighties a young Kurt Cobain auditioned as their guitar player (he was unsuccessful – though he did end up playing on a couple of their tracks on their debut album Houdini). Then he spent a couple of years as a roadie for them instead, before he went off to form his own band which became the all-conquering Nirvana. However, whilst Kurt has been pushing up daisies for the last fourteen years, Buzz Osborne (aka King Buzzo) and Dale Crover are still on the road with their band. And they still know how to rock out a mid-sized venue like the Rescue Rooms.
The truth is I missed the support act Big Business, because I went to see Goose Fair beforehand (for any American’s who have found this article through Google, Goose Fair is not another punk band). But we saw Emma, lead singer from Nottingham all-girl punk band The Smears outside after and she said they were the kind of band that sounds like the songs inside her head. Which is quite a high compliment, when you think about it! The place was packed out by the time The Melvins came on, going straight into song. With two drummers on duty for the night (as well as two guitars and an organ/ sampler) there were a lot of drum rolls and drum solos and the beats sounded amazing. There was a wall of sound throughout, with very little opportunity for audience interaction, as the band allowed no time for adulation or clapping, between songs. This seems to be intentional on the part of the band – much of the strength of their music comes from sudden moments of silence.
Quite a lot of the songs were from their new album Nude With Boots, like The Kicking Machine, The Savage Hippy and the albums title track. But there were a few more recognisable ones in there too like a cover of The Who’s My Generation and a bizarrely sincere rendition of The Star Spangled Banner, that sounded like a church choral group and, if nothing else, showed that all five members of the live band were adept at singing. There was a slightly uneasy atmosphere at times during the gig. The music immediately puts you a little on edge and there was a mainly male audience there, with a surprisingly active moshpit at the front (surprising for a Rescue Rooms gig anyway). About halfway through the set a drunk-looking guy a few bodies in front of me said a bit too much to a stocky meathead and a few fists went flying. As well as a pint of beer over an angry looking girl to my left. She was not happy! But by the end the rest of the crowd were happy again. The tense atmosphere their music can create is totally blown apart by encore song Okie from Muskogge. King Buzzo lead the sing along and the rest of the band swayed and clicked their fingers along to it like they were The Drifters. All in all a, slightly bizarre, but enjoyably experimental experience. Comment (1)  Send to friend  Print  Add to Facebook  Socialise
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