Buzz at Shank Hall in Milwaukee, 6/28

[(PAUL)]

Sorry for the late review, my powers been out and I've been busy in the meantime. Anyways, I went to see Buzz last Saturday and it was a great time! We were running about an hour late due to unforseen circumstances so we missed all of Emma Ruth Rundle and only caught the end of Mark Waldoch's set, which was pretty good but ended pretty suddenly when he broke a string in the middle of a song. He went backstage assumingly to ask Buzz if he could either play his guitar or if Buzz had any extra guitar strings but came up empty so he just stopped. I used the in between break to make a quick pee stop and when I came back decided to stand right up front by Buzz, despite everyone else sitting in their chairs at their tables. This encouraged my friend Ben to stand by me and a couple of other people wandered up too. By about the middle of the set when I took a peek behind me there was a great deal of people by the stage then, which was good, it would have been lame if everyone remained in there seats. I also saw Buzz live acoustic a couple months back in Madison which featured probably about 70-30 Melvins songs to solo tracks, and this time was reverse, with a majority of the material being from This Machine Kills Artists and a few Melvins songs thrown in. All the Melvins songs played were also played at the first show, which makes sense. Also this time when listening to the Melvins songs I focused on the performance as opposed to first time when in my head I would picture the rest of the band playing along with him. This gave it more of an intimate and intense feel to it (I suppose the reason I filled in the rest of the band in my head was because I'm both so used to hearing the songs in that fashion and it was just so damn intimate without the drums and bass). Buzz also told a couple of stories, well only one really and it was the Mike Patton story which was hilarious and kind of gross and shows the respect that Buzz has for Patton, even though it might not always come across in interviews. The funniest part was Buzz said Patton came to the solo show in San Fran and he shrank back into his chair when Buzz asked the audience if he should tell the Patton or Iggy Pop story (the San Fransisco audience voted to hear the Iggy Pop story), and after the show Patton asked Buzz what story he was going to tell, as I imagine there are multiple stories Buzz could tell. The second story wasn't so much a story as it was Buzz remembering a conversation he had with his wife about what story to tell and not wanting to talk about any of the stories Mackie suggested (mainly stories about him getting beat up or arrested). So yeah, he finished with Revolve, the PA blasted Hell Broke Luce by Tom Waits and Buzz signed some things for fans before taking off for Chicago.

[JUDY]

Nice review, Paul! Thanks for sharing!!!

[GrimReaper]

Nice review, Paul! Thanks for sharing!!!

Word

[jules]

mainly stories about him getting beat up or arrested