Town Ballroom, Buffalo,NY

[Mount Ambulance]

   Hell Yeah! Another stellar show ... first Detroit, now this ... Rochester tommorrow ... good shit my friends ... good shit. Mabey not as smokin' as Detroit but still fantastic. The venue was nice but sucked ... huh?
   
   First off everyone overheated at Smalls would loved this place. Nice and air conditioned. The place reminded me of a lecture hall; semi circle floor w/ a semi circle of acending stands w/ a few tables an' chairs ... nice an' clean, no smokin' & the place was too big for the crowd that showed. All these conspired to kinda give the proceedings a sterile vibe ... crowd wise anyhow ... I mean people (not me) were gettin' off an slaming an shit down on floor but ... I donno it just seemed sedate ... lacked that vibe & magic a small, sweaty, reeking of weed room conjures up. An' I donno if Melvins have their own sound guy this time ... seemed to be 2 of 'em at Smalls' ... didn't recognize them ... tonight's seemed to be a different dude ... but yeah, it was too loud ... by the time Melvins hit it seemed all good, they sounded great but still a little too loud, but the Biz sounded terrible way loud & muddy mix , couldn't hear Toshi & everything else was just "BBBRRGGAAARRWWWAAAA!!" Like I said Melvins sounded decent but my ears are ringng fierce now  an' that never happens to my damaged ears anymore after years of seeing concerts ... so yeah, musta been loud!
   
   I dug Moss & Co. a little more tonight ... w/ the minamilism & drone of it the volume actually worked well ... you could "feel" it ... Cool
 
    At least BB seemed to be getting into it ... as Armo pointed out Toshi's got some retardedly great guitar faces ... I'm sure they played great ... but ya really couldn't tell through the mud.
   
   Melvins were great and I was happy it actual sounded decent by this point ... I was up center on the first set of stands ... could see perfectly, heaps of room to jump around an' shit ... that was nice ... an' I guess the fact I didn't sweat my balls off was kinda cool ... sterile vibe or not I still lost my shit! And the band didn't seem to fuckin sterile ... but I mean their pros, ya know? They still kicked out the jams an' all but things definatly seemed more "ON" in Detroit (I'll have a better idea when I hear the recordings of each). But still they tore shit up ... Always a blast to just watch those double drums (I really dig what they've been doing in Tipping the Lion). Buzz was doing alota "Billy Idol" sneering and shit ... an' some cool abrasive string scraping & scratching in various numbers ... pretty much the same highlights as Detroit ... an' again Civilized Worm got the biggest response ... the crowd went more bannanas for that than Honey Bucket? Weird. I mean if either of those songs screams: lose your shit! SLAM ! its' not Civilized Worm.  Of course Boris stole the show ... killer lurching madness ... it was great! Again the outro was chilling ... Jared's wale sounds and singing was a swirling trip out! He was singing along throat up to bass making this deep drone mirror of Buzz words ... Awesome ... mabey he was doin' it last time too but it really came through here ...
 
    Shot the shit with Walsby a little more tonight ... nice dude.  There was like no one at merch virtually all night ... until the end of the show ... it was weird not seeing people all through the crowd with arms full of poster an' shit. Sucked though, it Detroit he said other then the Grumpys' their were no old posters ... An' I had my heart set on grabbing the ones from Mangy Moose & Portland ... as I'm walking out at the end I notice a freakin' Mangy Moose poster behin the table ... as I'm trying to get Walsby's attention through the throngs of people now invading the merch some kid gets it! I was gonna corner him an' offer him a $10 profit if he sold it to me ... but lost him in the crowd ... Damn!
   
   But yeah, Melvins definatly gotta get up here to Canada ... As BB was starting Jared asked how many Canadians here tonight ... and like 3/4 of the people there throw their arms up!

[Chief Ten Beers]

  I got there just in time for Big Biz after Zappa Plays Zappa ended early due to lightning. That was great & ended at a perfect time. Was worried I'd miss all of Big Biz and part of the Melvins set. I was one of the ones that came in looking like a drowned rat. Yeah, the sound was muddy alright for Big Biz. Sounded pretty shitty compared to the last time I saw them @ Peabody's last year which was perfect. What else can you say about the Melvins? Every time I see them I think this is the best they can get and they can't ever top this, but they do it every time. It was great being up front, having space and not getting slammed into once. I don't give a shit how much the crowd gets "into it" and I'm sure the band doesn't either. They seem to play with the same energy every night no matter the crowd size.

I've seen alot of shows at this place - some completely packed like Ween & Dethklok, and some sparse like Dinosaur Jr. & Clutch. I like it there mainly for the location and the overall setup is nice. The place they played last time -Showplace Theater-  is pretty run down and up on the north side away from everything downtown.

About Buffalo vs. Detroit. The Melvins have probably played Detroit every tour since the beginning, so of course there's a more hardcore audience there. The Melvins are more underground in Buffalo. They didn't play here at all in the Rutmanis years,  11 years between Stoner Witch & Senile Animal tour. Rochester should be interesting tonight. I'm still surprised they got booked there. I don't even know of the last time Melvins played Rochester.

[Mount Ambulance]

   Yeah, I'm looking forward to Rochester too ... wondering how big the crowd'll be? I went on the ASA tour to Toledeo and it was freakin' empty! I'd say 30-40 people is a generous estimated ... totally cool ... right up on the side of the stage ... it was fantastic! Much looser too ... they even took a request! I've never seen that happen! But it also sucked, cut like 4 or so songs from the set ... ??? I donno I hear bands say crowd doesn't matter but ... why'd they cut 4 songs? I mean how could the difference between say an idifferent (thou I'm not saying that was the case in Buffalo) crowd & an apeshit crowd not somehow registar w/ the band and somehow effect the proceedings? Saw C.O.C do the same thing back in 1989 ... no show crowd ... they seemed a little bummed ... fuck, I had to smoke a hash dube w/ 'em just to get them to play a coule more songs

   But yeah, the years of Melvins absence I imagine plays a huge part ... definatly seemed like the curious rather than converted for the most part ... hopefully they were converted! Glad ya had a blast Cheif ... how was the Zappa Plays Zappa ... I've missed that show twice now ... dammit!

[MisterBear]

another great one!  waay too fucking loud but if it's any consolation for any in attendance and hoping for a recording to surface, the tape turned out better than I could have hoped.  Had a few technical issues in the first song of BB set and the Melvins sets but otherwise NICE!  Couple more hours and off to Rochester.  Woo-hoo!  Let's hope for a good showing there.

Overall I didn't have as much fun as Detroit but I had my mics in my hat vs. mounted on the wall which always limits my enjoyment.  Well worth it in the years to come though... 

If any of you remember grabbing the Detroit show last year, that was probably my recording, I will have them all up (Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester) on my blog sometime hopefully in near future.  No guarantees but I wanna get'em up soon otherwise it will be a while. 

[Greasy Statement]

nice venue, too bad no good grub in the area. melvins rocked it as expected. their rendition of the star spangled banner almost made me want to become a citizen. i saw anti-gay protesters on their way to the block party that was happening on washington. off to rochester tonight, yippeee!

[I am the Sun]

Was it Westboro Baptist protesters?

[Greasy Statement]

it's possible. maybe it was a stopover on their way to toronto (they're protesting a play being put on here spoofing on good old fred)

[glen]

If any of you remember grabbing the Detroit show last year, that was probably my recording, I will have them all up (Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester) on my blog sometime hopefully in near future.  No guarantees but I wanna get'em up soon otherwise it will be a while. 

are you ambulance's friend that I met?   
I got your recording of last year's detroit show.  top notch.
can't wait to hear this year's take.  remember me come dispursement day.

[spunkmonkey]

remember me come dispursement day.

I'm not sure what's more depressing; the fact that you carry a purse or that you want it stolen.

[glen]

watch it or I'll go ruth buzzy on your ass and bust you over the head with it.

[spunkmonkey]

[glen]

bi the waye, eye ar a gewd speler.

[bUTTHOLEmAN]

A Ruth Buzzy reference?!?  What is this, the 1900s?!? 

[Chief Ten Beers]

 how was the Zappa Plays Zappa ... I've missed that show twice now ... dammit!

Fucking awesome, except that the lightning made it end early a little after 9PM during the King Kong solos. DZ said they had to stop, and see if the lightning would go away. They didn't come back out. I knew it was over, so I hauled ass down Main St. to the Ballroom.

The setlist was:
Approximate>Imaginary Diseases
City of Tiny Lights
Sharleena
Uncle Remus
Willie the Pimp
Peaches En Regalia
Echidna's Arf
G-Spot Tornado
Flakes
Broken Hearts are for Assholes
Bamboozled by Love
King Kong

[Mount Ambulance]

That's a pretty sweet set list ... know if it varies much show to show?