Australian Tour Reviews

[jules]

¡sʍǝıʌǝɹ ǝɯos ǝʌɐɥ s,ʇǝן ¡ɐıןɐɹʇsnɐ 'uo ǝɯoɔ

[black stallion]

 

[jack5990]

I'll pitch in!
Went to the sold out show in Melbourne last night, supported by Red Kross.
Red Kross puts on a great show, playing a decent range of their old to new tunes. Lots of theatrics and energy as to be expected by the McDonald Brothers and crew. Dale played drums with them for the tour, giving the bad a bit more punch and power to their performance.

Maxx Watts was pretty full up with Red Kross, but the full crowd came in full force as The Melvins set time approached.
In traditional style the melvins walk onto the stage silent, but surprisingly chipper and smiling. The set started with Sacrifice which felt huge as Buzz's vocals cut through the venue with a bit of reverb for ambience. Racing through their other songs they played a pretty similar set to what you'd expect; Oven, Anaconda, Queen etc.

Some where around the middle of the set Steve blew up an SVT-CL head and had to get it replaced by GK and another SVT, Buzz and Dale remarked it'd had been like the 5th head Steve had killed by now. In other stage banter they referenced the "Alive at the Fucker Club" album from the Melbourne Corner Hotel, suggesting that if "The Kicking Machine" was written around then it would have made the album, also they joked about meat pies, booze and our recent Melbourne Cup (horse racing) holiday (which was the day before.)

Lovely Butterfly was played as a tease into an extended intro of The Bit which seemed to be a crowd favourite as the tension built in the room. Scooba was also played as a little drum and bass jam.

The show finished with Lysol, and the crowd pretty much knew what was about go on, as many hands raised and smiling faces became excited in anticipation. Lysol was huge as expected, with some interesting bass noodling from Steve.

The show finished early, or at least earlier than expected, with dale and boys saying their goodbyes and promising to return next time.  Leaving the stage, the amps got carted off very slowly and the house lights never came on, leading to a very confused audience that wanted an encore they clearly weren't going to get.

All in all it was a great performance and I'll be back next time. Also I got the setlist, so here's a photo!

[#2 Pencil]

Merch was
Haze Stag Owl T Shirt
Signed silk screened poster for Venue (Max Watts)
Redd Kross logo T Shirts in black or white
Jeff McDonald cd

[#2 Pencil]

Was for me the most solid performance I've seen the Melvins. I've seen every lineup live. McDonald kills it for atmosphere. Not saying the others are not good at any point, but I sensed Buzz was more relaxed.

[rimb]

Was for me the most solid performance I've seen the Melvins. I've seen every lineup live. McDonald kills it for atmosphere. Not saying the others are not good at any point, but I sensed Buzz was more relaxed.

Agreed - great vibe from all of them on stage.

My favourite lineup I've seen live since the Rutmanis era 

[#2 Pencil]

[#2 Pencil]

[black stallion]

great pics and review, thanks

looks like they cut Soberdelic from the set list

[Bigval]

I went to the Adelaide show last Saturday and to be totally honest was a bit bored really. I didn't see Redd Kross and rocked up about 15 mins before the Melvins set and although I liked the first 3-4 songs of their set they then went into more straight ahead stuff and extended jams/doodling the rest of the way which had me watching the clock. I have to admit I don't like Steven McDonald and his antics and thought the band sounded much better in the BB and Rutmanis era. I last saw them in 2003 with Rutmanis and just wish I hadn't have missed the BB version four years ago.

Only merch I saw on the way out was 2-3 Melvins/Redd Kross t-shirts at $30 a pop and a Steven McDonald solo CD for $20.

A couple of pics taken by the venue's photographer below.

[#2 Pencil]

Someone must have told Buzz t-shirts were expensive. They were $35 in Melbourne.

[Bigval]

Someone must have told Buzz t-shirts were expensive. They were $35 in Melbourne.

Just gouging Victorians you can't blame him really

The only show specific banter I remember too was when one knucklehead clearly under the weather jumped up on the stage looking to stage dive early in their set, security grabbed him and disposed of him and after that song Steven went on a bit of a rant about how that might be how you do things in South Australia but in this day and age it's too much of a safety risk so don't anyone do it again.

He carried on about it a bit too long really and this from someone who's been in the band five minutes just be appreciative of the decent turnout.

[jules]

Thanks for all the reviews! Is there a tour shirt specific to Australia this year?

[black stallion]

I went to the Adelaide show last Saturday and to be totally honest was a bit bored really. I didn't see Redd Kross and rocked up about 15 mins before the Melvins set and although I liked the first 3-4 songs of their set they then went into more straight ahead stuff and extended jams/doodling the rest of the way which had me watching the clock. I have to admit I don't like Steven McDonald and his antics and thought the band sounded much better in the BB and Rutmanis era. I last saw them in 2003 with Rutmanis and just wish I hadn't have missed the BB version four years ago.

Only merch I saw on the way out was 2-3 Melvins/Redd Kross t-shirts at $30 a pop and a Steven McDonald solo CD for $20.

A couple of pics taken by the venue's photographer below.

thanks for the review.speaking in general looks like for Steven is a love or hate. to me he sounds great as bassist but it's a matter of tastes.

[))))((((]

I have to admit I don't like Steven McDonald and his antics

Same here, or at least not in Melvins anyway.