2012年 05月 2日 水曜日 02:31
Tue 1 May – Melvins, Unsane
Just got back, wholly shit awesome. First off, this was probably the biggest crowd I've seen for a Melvins show, and the first time they've played Milwaukee since 2006 which might have had something to do with that. The venue Turner Hall is also much bigger than other venues I've seen them at, and probably my favorite venue in the area (the usher in the front also said "The King is waiting for you", which cracked me up). Before the show started I snagged a poster (artwork very similar to the Melvins/Unsane 7", and signed by the band), the flower shirt and the Melvins/Totimoshi split 7". Unfortunately they were out of letterpress everything but I was able to run the stuff out to my car before the show started. I also ran into various people I know at the show which was cool. The opener Unsane were pretty great, and angry. I only have Scattered Smothered and Covered so I didn't recognize most of what they played but it sounded how Unsane should sound, dirty, angry and just a "wall of noise" as my friend Aaron put it. Their drummer Vinney is sitting out the tour as he has some sort of health issue going on so first Coady played with them then Dale came out and took over for Coady, then Coady came back out to finish the set, which ended with Scrape, Alleged, and a cover of the Flipper song Ha Ha Ha, which I didn't see coming (or that Unsane would cover it!) but it was pretty awesome nonetheless. After they were done my friend Ben and I moved up front and were a couple of rows back of Buzz's side.
Just a short time later the Melvins came out and started with Dog Island and while I wouldn't say the place went nuts (that was later), there were certainly some enthusiastic people in the crowd. One of the guys I was standing next to was punching me repeatedly because he was so excited. After Dog Island they played the first side of Lysol, which was probably the third time I've heard them play that in the last couple of years and was great as usual. It's funny; when I was first getting into the Melvins I didn't think they would play that song live ever but it seems lately they've been playing that live quite a bit (maybe that's because the album is 20 years old now?). They then played the Water Glass and punchy guy yelled in my ear "Do you know this song?", to which I replied "Hell yeah!" which seemed to satisfy him. MANKY!!! The first time I saw the Melvins live in 1999 that was the first song they played, so that song will always hold a special place for me. Youth of America was also tops and that was when the place started getting pretty crazy with a pit starting. They also played that new song A Growing Disgust which sounded good and makes me look forward to Freak Puke even more (and makes me think of how awesome Coady and Jared are to play the new song that they weren't involved in). They then played the new EP the Bulls and the Bees in it's entirety which sounds even better live compared to the studio versions. A Really Long Wait was the most obviously different track live as compared to the studio version due to the fact that, well, none of them play violin or anything, but it was a good atmospheric track and good lead in to National Hamster. THE BIT!!!! That song just crushes when they play it live. Plus, they did the crazy drum solo/Jared singing/noise thing at the end of their set which they seem to do lately and I think is great.
After the show we kind of hung out for a little bit to gather our thoughts and relax before hitting the road, which turned out to be the right call as I saw a woman with a setlist which I pointed out to my friends. The woman then said to me "Do you want the set list?" to which I replied "HELL YEAH!" I was very happy, and the woman then seemed to think I didn't appreciate it so I gave her a BIG hug and told her I loved her and some other stuff to that effect. Some guy then took our picture and told me the website to go to for pictures from the show to which I completely forgot by now which is unfortunate. Anyways now I want to get the poster framed with the set list and ticket in the frame with it.