05/25/2003 Washington, DC 9:30 club

[Grim Reaper]

I haven

[Anonymous]

I went to the Melvins/Tomahawk/Dalek show last night at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC. I had traveled there for Memorial Day weekend, to see the Melvins and my friend who lives there. It's quite a ways away from my home in VT. Anyway, I got to the club after a nice Thai meal at his friends' apartment. The 9:30 Club is great, there are at least three bars in the club, maybe even more. I never could figure out how to get to the top level of the place. But there's one down in the basement and one on either side of the main stage-level area. It was never a hassle to get a drink. I had done a tiny bit of pre-gaming and had three Budweisers during Dalek and the Melvins. I never had to wait more than a minute or so to get a beer.

Dalek was pretty cool, they reminded me of a noisier version of Cypress Hill. The MC wasn't similar to Cypress Hill, but the backing music was. There was one guy doing turntables, and one guy who I think just did samples/noise. At any rate, he wasn't doing any scratching. The turntablist had a 'fro that could definitely be competitive with Buzzo's. It was out there. They played for a little while, but my friend and I headed to the basement bar for most of the set.

Then it was time for the MELVINS! I overheard more than a few people complaining that the Melvins ought to have been headlining, and I agree. They're better than Tomahawk and have way more songs. But I'm preaching to the converted here. They started off by having this klaxon sound (which may have been Kevin's bass) and a strobe light set really slow, so it didn't strobe so much as just flash. That sort of evolved into this noisy bit, which in turn evolved into "The Fool, the Meddling Idiot." I was worried that the flashing light was going to go for the entire set. It was starting to get annoying, which the Melvins seem to like to have happen. Here's a list of songs that I remember them playing, though not in order because I can't remember what order they played them in. And it might not be all-inclusive.
- The Fool, the Meddling Idiot
- Zodiac
- Night Goat
- Mombius Hibachi
- Black Stooges
- The Bloat
- The Bit
- At A Crawl
- Revolve
- Brain Center at Whipples
- Let It All Be

I think they may have played one or two other songs, but I can't remember. Sorry. The Melvins were definitely rocking very hard, I tell you. I'm sort of disappointed that Kevin wasn't acting more weird. Last time I saw him, touring for HAT, he was doing all sorts of weird stuff. This time he just had some funny expressions on his face. I figure he must have had to conserve his mojo for Tomahawk. Dale did his little duck walk at the end of the show, and got some well-deserved applause. His bass drum sounded so damn heavy. In fact, the entire kit did. It was the star of the show.

Next up was Tomahawk. I hadn't seen them before, but I have both of their CDs and knew what to expect. It's been said before, and I'll say it again, Tomahawk is a live band. To paraphrase what I read in a review for XMen 2 in Rolling Stone, "Tomahawk kicked me in the balls so hard that I puked on my balls, and also my ass." Kevin, John, Mike and Duane tore it up. The great thing about them, is that none of them compromise because they're in a "supergroup." Each guy gets to do what it is that he does so well. All the songs were done so well, even some of the songs that I don't like so much off the first record. I ended up leaving early, though, because the goddamned subway doesn't run past around midnight. So we had to jet or risk walking a hell of a long way. But it was still a great show. Worth the plane ticket and other expenses. The only downside is that the Melvins didn't get to play for too long.