Buzz Osborne at Grumpy’s, Minneapolis (27 June 2014)

A hushed reverence fell upon the crowd packed into Grumpys narrow music room as Melvins’ leader and all-around acerbic evocator Buzz Osborne made his way to the stage. Osborne strapped on his acoustic-electric guitar (a foreign replacement for the red, white and blue Buck Owens American acoustic that he wrote his new record with) and a weird tension filled the air; folks seemed unsure of how to react. Do we clap? Yell out our approval? When Osborne launched into the first song, the Melvins’ “Boris,” the potent combination of menacing chords and his outrageous howl visibly startled several fans standing at the front. Following “Suicide in Progress,” from the Melvins’ 2008 record Nude With Boots, and a cover of Alice Cooper’s “The Ballad of Dwight Fry,” Osborne yelled out “Thank you!” and instantly put the uncertain Minneapolis audience at ease.

It’s hard not to feel slightly intimidated by King Buzzo; he’s a big guy with a thunderous voice and a guitar sound that’ll put you six feet under. He’s also a huge part of rock history, instrumental in popularizing the drop D tuning that would become synonymous with grunge music and influencing a generation of bands with his 31+ years in the Melvins. But Osborne is also equipped with a sharp sense of humor and has an affable stage presence. When a fan jokingly cried “Freebird” in between songs (seriously, when will this phenomenon just die already?), Buzzo quipped, “You’re lucky I don’t know it!” Later in the night, he regaled the crowd with a colorful tale about the always entertaining ex-Faith No More vocalist, Mike Patton, who defended the honor of his Melvins pals by treating impolite “baby rocker” concertgoers to a 50 minute set of white noise from his band Mr. Bungle and a dirty act involving an eye dropper and his own rear end. Nice.

Osborne was generous with Melvins tracks on his setlist, but it was the slew of songs from This Machine Kills Artists, Osborne’s newest release on Ipecac, that I was especially curious to hear. Great chugging riffs abounded on “Dark Brown Teeth” and “Rough Democracy” and “Laid Back Walking” sounded like the guitar-playing equivalent of chopping off heads (and the way Osborne was stalking the stage, you’d think he was looking for a few victims). On the moody “Drunken Baby,” Buzzo sang with his full-lunged wail lyrics that seemed to nod to his epic musical past: “I wanna say thank you to all my friends/I won’t complain about beginnings or ends” while the excellent slower-paced “How I Became Offensive” featured a climbing and dropping melody with Osborne lessening his yell to a raspy hiss. He rounded out the set with the Melvins’ “War on Wisdom” and “We Are Doomed” both from the 2012 EP The Bulls & The Bees and “Revolve” from 1994’s Stoner Witch.

emily () ♥
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