July 9 2017 - Goldfield in Sacramento

[the ether bunny]

It's that wonderful annual evening where I get to see this band of lovable weirdos...

If I'm only catching one gig on a tour, and I have the chance between seeing the Melvins in Sacramento, or the Great American Music Hall in SF, I'd usually choose the latter. My Mondays at work are far easier than my Tuesdays, and my girlfriend and I have a few friends in Sacramento that we hadn't seen in awhile, so we decided to head north to make a weekend out of it. We told one of our friends that we were making this voyage, and she decided to come with. It's always a pleasure taking the uninitiated to a Melvins gig!

After spending a day on the Sacramento River, we made our way to Goldfield. I'd never been there - it's like a redneck all-American bar with hunting paraphernalia everywhere, and the American flag painted on the wall behind the stage. The stage is pretty fuckin' small, and the place was packed on a sweltering evening - there were sweaty bro's everywhere. Holy shit, I always forget that Sacramento is a bro epicenter! I came across Idle, gave him a brief hello, and made my way to check out Spotlights.

Spotligjhts was good. I didn't know their material at all. They kinda reminded me of the Deftones for some reason. My only complaint was that the vocals were barely in the mix. Otherwise, cool set! I'm gonna have to check out their studio work in the near future. The Melvins came on around 9:30, and killed it as usual. I'm digging this setlist - it's heavy in that early material (pun intended)! I've also gotta say that I really like Mr. McDonald's stage presence. I saw Red Kross at Burger Boogaloo last week as well, and the dude is just fun to watch... I think he brings an energy to this band that's fresh, and Buzz and Dale look like their enjoying themselves more than I've really seen in the past. Not to mention, the dude is a seriously talented bass player.

Merch is killer - There's lots of letterpress stuff out there, and a Suicide in Progress 7" that was sold for $35. I picked up the golden, signed tour copy of Love and Death for $50. I haven't even had a chance to look at it... I got home at one AM and was up at five for work. I'm gonna head home in an hour and give that puppy a spin.

My uninitiated friend is officially initiated. She dug it! Good show, y'all. As usual, you guys are in for a treat.

[tastelikedirt]

https://youtu.be/x1BggdLEY9E

[black stallion]

awesome ^