Berlin Residency Shows 7th & 8th May!!

[Helen83]

The first part was better I think, they mixed songs from Lysol and Eggnog, then took a 10 minute break and came back to blast Houdini.

but Houdini was fucking rad. Didn't expect that.

i can see what you mean. two words: HAG ME

When I saw them in Auckland in 97 or 98 they opened with that. It was DEVASTATING!!!!!

[black stallion]

To be fair, I did have the feeling that Coady was kinda lacking. He was sort of following Dale, more than usual, and seemed a little hesitant to lay into it full blast.
Of course Dale is the more experienced drummer and he's essentially playing HIS stuff. As much as I like what they do as a duo, the old stuff just belongs to Crover. That, and Coady's last Melvins tour was last year with Unsane. You can kinda tell.

totally agree. i'm so happy to have seen them as trio

[Oscar]

Same here. The Lite gig felt a lot more relaxed in comparison.

[Helen83]

Melvins are best as a trio. Rutmanis for the win!

[Alex-]

Alright, I promised Jules a review so i'll try to make the best of it.

The trip didn't started too well at the airport in Amsterdam. I was with Radster (Arno) and his girlfriend. The flight company kept changing the gate numbers, so we were walking a marathon with our luggage. The flight itself was alright though. Not too fancy, but it's only an one hour flight to Berlin from here.

When arriving at the hotel, checking in and dropping my luggage in my hotel room, I went outside the hotel to meet Buddy Holiday. He was chatting with Buzz, together with Arno. I didn't really got the chance to talk, but just introduced myself, after that he walked away. Apparently the band had the exact same hotel as we did.

After that special moment, we decided to see some of the remaining pieces of the Berlin wall. I've never been in Berlin, so I really didn't mind seeing this. Altough it didn't left much of a impression on me, i'm really glad i've seen it. After that we had dinner in sunny Kreuzberg, and decided to go to this little bookstore where Wooden Wand was doing a instore gig. It all started a bit later then announced so unfortunalely we only could see 3 songs of that becouse we wanted to be at Festsaal Kreuzberg on time.

The venue (Festsaal Kreuzberg) is alright, it has this little terras with a bar outside the venue. The venue itself wasn't too big, and also had a balcony. It's probably the smallest venue i've seen Melvins so far.

The Black Sabbath tune started again, same as the light shows, and Melvins came on (no support on both nights). Everyone was wearing the same outfits as the previous Lite shows, except Jared who was wearing some protection suite made out of carton, with soda advertising on it. He also had two empty plastic soda bottles ducktaped on his head.

There is no need of telling which songs they played these nights. Everything from the albums got played, nothing more, nothing less. There were 20 to 30 min breaks in the set, just like they did in the US. The crowd was sometimes quite annoying, moshing on Houdini songs, which didn't really suprised me. I did a few steps back and everthing was fine.

Highlights are really hard to pick, for now i'll say entire Eggnogg the first night, and Bullhead the next night. I can't pick songs, it's just too difficult.

Only downfall was that inside the venue, the heat was terrible.. Especially the first night was way too warm inside the venue.

The next day we decided to do some typical tourist stuff like seeing the Brandenburger Torr and Reichstag. We didn't really spend loads of time doing that, most famous monuments are quite near each other in the center of Berlin. After that, we went to 4 record stores. Eventually of course I only really scored at the last one we visited.

That night at the Festsaal, I spotted even more stoners then the night before. The crowd started going nuts the first few songs already, and got some elbows near my face. Now I really had to do some more steps back then the night before, but eventually still had an ok spot. I did spend a moment surrounded by sweaty bearded stoners with no shirt though.

There were two posters for this residency, and the same shirts which they also sold on the light shows.

The next day Buddy Holiday had to leave earlier to the airport then we did, so we said goodbye and walked around Kreuzberg for the last time. While walking back to the hotel to pick up our luggage, we saw Buzz standing in front of the hotel again. We talked, and he treated us that there will be a new compiltation record out with the artists from the Minneapolis Bash show. Also he told there will come a new Volcom 7''. Eventually the whole band came out, and we asked some typical questions like if they were enjoying Berlin, and if the were looking forward to Paris ect.. Buzz: ''I didn't do much here, just standing here all day staring germans.. Sieg Heil!''

After that happened we quickly got our stuff and went to the airport to catch our plain back to Amsterdam.

[buddy holiday]

awesome you got to meet the guys again!

not much to add from my side. it was 2 overall awesome days!

here are some more pictures i found online:
https://itsonlymusicbutlive.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/berlin-festsaal-kreuzberg-melvins/
http://itsonlymusicbutlive.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/berlin-festsaal-kreuzberg-melvins-part-ii/

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[black stallion]

Buzz: ''I didn't do much here, just standing here all day staring germans.. Sieg Heil!''

you took Dale's place in the band 

[Michael Jordan]

A few notes:

2nd night was awesome too, but I still think that the Lysol / Eggnog part stood out.

I thought the club was great - I loved how the stage was so small and I was pretty much standing less than one meter from the drumkit(s).

Dale Crover is GOD - do I need to elaborate? he was definitely playing much harder than Coady, but than again he plays harder than anyone on this planet... 

I didn't mind the crowd except for some of the Houdini songs. I personally never understood people who come to Melvins shows to mosh but each to their own I guess.

Berlin is a really cool city - Stayed for 5 days, mostly in Kreuzberg, and it's a really fun city with lots of nice people.

Talking about nice people - I met a lot of them before and after the shows on both nights. From Melvins fanatics who live near the venue in Kreuzberg, through other German Melvins fans who came from Nuremberg and Rostok, to a couple more Israelis who did the same way I did from Tel Aviv. Melvins fans are a cool, dedicated bunch and don't let anyone tell you otherwise (for the record I still haven't met schanb so my impression could still change )

Everybody in Berlin smokes cigarettes - and I thought Israelis smoke a lot...  fuck me, everyone in this city is a smoker. People wander the streets rolling their cigis like no one has ever heard of lung cancer.

Heat - on both nights I left the venue with a t-shirt so soaked, one could have thought I just played full 48 minutes guarding Lebron James. fuck it was hot and humid in there!

Anyway, enough from me - I fucking envy each and everyone of u fuckers who get to see these 4 hours of Melvins in the coming month, I wish I had the time and money to go to a couple of more dates. Some of the best Melvins I've seen live.

Peace

[oldernie]

hey michael jordan, glad you got to see these shows,
i remember at london with you a few years back and dale was doing drums alone cus coady had gone home early, and you were really hoping to see the double drums. well now you have, worth the wait huh.

sounds like the berlin shows were great, sounds a better venue than we will be seeing in london, hence why ive now added one night in bristol to my plans, this thing is sure to be best in a smaller venue, everything always is.

wish id made it out to germany with you lot, even though i have just seen arno and alex- would have been cool to have spent a few more days with good company. and meet buddy holiday and michael jordan again.

[black stallion]

Dale Crover is GOD

[jules]

Coady

Coady

Poor Coady was given food poisoning in Berlin which may have something to do with your comments; he was back to perfect health by Paris, though, and played astonishingly well.

Another member of the touring crew also had a bit of food poisoning in Berlin, and it was from a different restaurant, too!

[Oscar]

I didn't know that...poor fella.
If it makes anyone feel better, I went on some epic food outings during my stay in Berlin. What a city to stuff your face in.

[buddy holiday]

here is one of the 2 posters for the berlin show.

http://www.resurgo-berlin.com/search/label/Gig-posters?max-results=15

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[Oscar]

I bought that one. The other one was a little tacky.

[black stallion]

Coady

Coady

Poor Coady was given food poisoning in Berlin which may have something to do with your comments; he was back to perfect health by Paris, though, and played astonishingly well.

Another member of the touring crew also had a bit of food poisoning in Berlin, and it was from a different restaurant, too!

sorry to hear