Last Thursday morning, we got an email from The Observatory in Santa Ana offering free tickets to the Melvins show that night. SoCal must be suffering from some kind of Melvins fatigue, we guess. Anyway, we took up the venue on its offer.
The place was close to full when we got in during the band’s cover of “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” That song was so good–full of harmonies and heaviness and potent pauses–it rather made the rest of the set a long come down. That’s not to belittle what Melvins were up to–their usual tight set–it’s just that some kid outside swapped us some potent wax hits for a cigarette, and we spent half the show trying to stay on top of the buzz once the excitement of the excellent Beatles cover dropped us into the loud reality of the rest of the gig.
New and soon-to-be-replaced bass player Steven McDonald (Redd Kross, OFF!) had a fan blowing his hair back while he played. Gotta compete with Buzzo’s famous mop somehow.
Dale Crover hits the drums hard.
Best t-shirt of the night: Some funky alien-like creature with a word bubble saying “My favorites are Bukowski, Vonnegut and Kaczynski” and underneath the whole drawing the words I Love Reading!
Dale Crover hits the drums hardest.
People get high at Melvins concerts? No way.