Melvins/Big Business - Chicago 9-28 @ The Double Door

[Fn MFr]

What do you get when you combine lots of feedback, ear damaging riffs, duck calls, and Dale Crover in an Elvis suit? Men of Porn, thats what, and a kick ass set by a band I should be listening to a lot more of then I have.

Ghost Digital is what you get when Joe Cocker, Fred Durst, the gay dude from the B-52's, and Robin Williams all have a fucked up foursome and spawn a child from the aftermath. They proceed to give the demon-spawn a few hits of acid and send him out to do a poetry reading. The spawn ends up going into the wrong place and reading his poetry up on a stage next to the house DJ of some random dance club. Myself and most of the crowd all had WTF looks on our face for the first few songs, if you could call them that, until we realized that it was supposed to be funny and that they were nothing more than Iceland's version of Tenacious D. For a while a found myself laughing and nodding my head to the beat, but eventually the amusement wore off after a few more songs and most of us were generally irritated by the end of the set.  The night would have been perfect if these guys were not wedged in between Men of Porn and Big Business.

Big Business came out and kicked ass. I enjoyed them much more this time then when they opened for High on Fire earlier this year. Dale Crover joined them three songs into the set, and proceeded to give their music an interesting flare with his guitar playing. He left the stage, let BB play two more songs, and returned with the King himself, and they proceeded to fuck shit up for about an hour and a half. I didnt get a good closeup at the setlists, but there enough songs on there to take up two pages. Almost all of (A) Senile Animal was played, along with a lot of older stuff. I cant remember the whole set in its entireity due to the fact that the PBR's were cold and going down fast, but I remember Revolve, Oven, The Bloated Pope, The Bit, and Let it all Be just to name a few. I'm sure I remembered more two days ago. The triple vocals were fucking great, and the drums didnt stop the whole set, and Dale would continue while the heads where changed out on Cody's kit two different times between songs. Buzz didnt say a word during the entire set, but looked like he was into it until the last song, and as soon as it was over he sat his guitar down in a manner to keep the feedback echoing while everyone else jammed out. He then ran off the stage kind of hunched over like he had to take a shit. Jared proceeded to create his own wall of noise and feedback over the relentless pounding of Dale and Cody, and then sat his bass down towards the drums so that you could hear them through his pick-ups, giving them a metallic effect. Dale and Cody played for what seemed like another 5 minutes, and on que stood up, gave everyone a thumbs up, and then beat the fuck out of their kits for another 2-3 minutes. Usually when I see a show, my ears ring a bit afterwards and into the next day. After this show, all I heard was drumming until sometime this afternoon.

While I have always considered myself a Melvins fan, this was only my third time seeing them. I saw them once with Mark D, once with Kevin Rutmanis, and now with Jared, who fit in great with them in my opinion. I wish I would have had the chance to hit the Madison and Milwaukee shows as well, but my concert funds are starting to run low after two Clutch shows last week. Hopefully I wont wait another six years before seeing them again.

This was defintely one of the wilder crowds I have seen at the Double Door, and in Chicago in recent years. By the time Big Business turned into the Melvins, the pit went from little vegan-ish skinny kids and short fat chicks into a real pit that added a lot of extra energy to the show, without people getting hurt or mowed over. The crowd surfers and stage divers were more than the 2 man security staff could handle, and an amusing moment of the night was when a skinny bouncer got on stage to catch a crowd surfer and got pulled into the corwd himself. There were a few assholes in attendance. A few water bottles were thrown in Jared's direction, there was one guy who kept buying bottles of Bud and pouring them on his self, and a drunk asshole leaned in on me a let a Death Growl accompanied by a fine mist of saliva into my ear. After giving him a quick lesson in pressure points, I sent him on is way with a punch to the right kidney and a kick in the ass. Last time I saw him, two chicks were trying to save him from a few big dudes that wanted to kick his ass.

All the cool merch I had read and heard about seemed to have been gone. I brought extra cash for some vinyl, but they had none. I got the "Happy Halloween Bitch!" shirt, and am now kicking my self for not grabbing a few Men of Porn discs.  I wasn't to impressed with most of the other shirts, and almost made an attempt at talking the merch guy out of his Houdini shirt, but it looked he had wore it everyday for the past week.

I made an attempt at pics, but technical difficulties with my camera pissed me off and I didnt want to miss a beat of this show trying to fix my obsolete piece of shit digital.

[GrimReaper]

Great review!

[FartLips]

seconded!

[___-----_____------_____]

Bravo !   your review was worth the wait.

there was one guy who kept buying bottles of Bud and pouring them on his self

Parinirvana:  It is the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice and implies a release from the cycle of deaths and rebirths as well as the dissolution of all worldly physical and mental aggregates or skandhas (form, feeling, perception, mental fabrications and consciousness).

The melvins may have brought this lucky soul to this level of ecstasy.

[Fn MFr]

The melvins may have brought this lucky soul to this level of ecstasy.

That and the $2 "special" on Bud Light.  There is no such thing as a cheap drink in this city anymore.

[FartLips]

Bravo !

[Glueyporchmountain]

I'm still bruised from this show....a few pics:

[pantherboy]

GlueyPorch - that first pic is the best Melvins photo OF ALL TIME!  Congrats!