The rich festival culture in the UK has a wonderful side-effect for those who can't be bothered to spend an entire weekend gigging away: much of the talent spills into the capital during the adjacent weeks. Fresh from the recent All Tomorrow's Parties festival that they co-curated with Mike Patton, The Melvins treated their London fans to a night of heavy sludge at Scala in King's Cross. Supported by Big Business, with whom they now share members, the night was also opened by the band's original 1983 line-up peforming as, appropriately enough, Melvins 1983. With a bill so brilliantly distilling ATP's weekender into one night in the city, those of us too lazy to trek out to Minehead had no excuse for missing an event so close to home.
The thunderous plod of The Melvins' two drummers provided the signal to everyone at the bar that it was time to rush into the main room, and as soon as the lethargic guitar strums came in, everyone knew that the hour of slow headbanging had arrived. King Buzzo, the band's instantly recognizable frontman, agreed as well, as his massive mop of grey hair in motion quickly became the focal point of the stage. Clearly there is a correlation between rocking hard and hair. Buzz: enormous hair, rocks hard. Brian Eno: really fucking bald, rocks gently. Don't think about it too much, it's only fact.
When you think of rocking hard, however, you think of wild, balls-out abandon, and this was actually a fair amount of the opposite. Despite the intensity of their performance, The Melvins always maintained full control over their sound and never let it carry them away. With such tight precision wrapped around their evil drone, The Melvins demostrated that restraint is every bit as essential to unleashing a crushing noise as letting go.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in hearing this band perform live is just how rhythmic they are. Listening to their albums, it's easy to get lost in the downtuned guitar buzz, though at one of their gigs it's impossible not to be moved by the beat. I've never seen a band put two drummers on stage without it feeling cheap and gimmicky, but The Melvins made it feel natural as well as necessary.
Although the band primarily focused on material from 2006's (A) Senile Animal and this year's Nude With Boots, they saved a much-loved oldie for last. Preceded by "The Star-Spangled Banner" in its entirety, Bullhead opener "Boris" emerged from the patriotic rubble to the crowd's delight. In the seventeen years since Bullhead was released, its experimental approach to metal has influenced countless doom-laden descendents, helping "Boris" to not only avoid sounding dated, but making it easily the most powerful song of the night.
As the band slowly left the stage, Buzz remained to wind his classic down into one of Merle Haggard's. Gently tapping at the strings, he softly gasped out "Okie From Muskogee", the country legend's infamous anti-hippie anthem. Although Haggard would claim decades later that his song was intended ironically, it had already become a popular favorite across the most conservative parts of America and placed him in an awkward position with anyone who prefers LSD over moonshine. Although King Buzzo's rendition was soft and comical, it was subtle enough to keep us guessing about its intentions. Looking up at that gigantic crown of hair on the King's head, however, I was sure there were enough lysergic remnants in its strands to dose the audience twice over.
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