Napalm Death / The Melvins at Madrid Theatre Kansas City, MO (2025-05-24)

NAPALM DEATH SETLIST Multinational Corporations, Part II Silence Is Deafening Lowpoint Vision Conquest Contagion Resentment Always Simmers Narcoleptic When All Is Said and Done Amoral Retreat to Nowhere Social Sterility Dead Suffer the Children Pride Assassin Necessary Evil Backlash Just Because F**k the Factoid Scum Prison Without Walls You Suffer Nazi Punks F**k Off (Dead Kennedys cover) Unchallenged Hate

THE MELVINS SETLIST intro music: Rapture by Blondie Working the Ditch Never Say You’re Sorry The Bloated Pope (Melvins & Lustmord song) Evil New War God Billy Fish Blood Witch A History of Bad Men Blood Witch Honey Bucket Revolve Your Blessened

HARD-ONS SETLIS Just Being With You The Badge* You Won’t Shut Up The Blade Drug Revival* I-94 Discontent* Made to Love You Plastic Bomb* (* = Poison Idea cover)

NAPALM DEATH TOUR DATES

THE MELVINS TOUR DATES

May 25 Omaha, NE – The Waiting Room
May 27 Denver, CO – Summit
May 29 Salt Lake City, UT – Metro Music Hall
May 31 Bozeman, MT – The ELM
June 1 Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory Spokane
June 2 Seattle, WA – The Showbox
June 3 Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
June 4 Eugene, OR – McDonald Theatre
June 6 Reno, NV – Virginia Street Brewhouse
June 7 Berkeley, CA – Cornerstone Berkeley

UK/EU ‘Stop Your Whining’ Tour w/ Redd Kross

July 17 Bristol, UK – The Exchange
July 18 Brighton, UK – Chalk
July 20 Liege, BE – Reflector
July 21 Frankfurt, DE – Batschkapp
July 23 Athens, GR – Technopolis
July 25 Michelau, DE – Rock Im Wald
July 26 Cottbus, DE – Blue Moon Festival
July 28 Munich, DE – Technikum
July 30 Rome, IT – Eur Social Park
July 31 Milan, IT – Circolo Magnolia
August 5 Lokeren, BE – Lokerse Fessten
August 6 Cologne, DE – Live Music Hall
August 7 Berlin, DE – Huxleys Neue Welt
August 8 Hamburg, DE – GroBe Freiheit 36
August 9 Utrecht, NL – Ronda TivoliVredenburg
August 11 Norwich, UK – Waterfront
August 12 London, UK – Electric Ballroom
August 13 Manchester, UK – Club Academy
August 14 Fernhill Farm, Compton Martin, UK – ArcTanGent 
August 15 Birmingham, UK – XOYO
August 16 Sheffield, UK – Leadmill
August 18 Dublin, IE – Button Factory

Memorial weekend metal mayhem!

The holiday got off to a loud start in midtown Kansas City as the double-barrel co-headlining tour of Napalm Death and The Melvins hit town for a crowded Friday show at the Madrid Theatre.

When the tour is called the Savage Imperial Death March Tour II and the band’s volume could be heard well down the block, you know it’s a decibel banger.

KC folks had patiently waited for the return of both bands, with the regularly touring Melvins playing in nearby Lawrence on their last time through, but we were lucky enough to catch King Buzzo on his 2024 tour with Mr. Bungle’s bassist Trevor Dunn, in St. Paul.

As far as the Meriden / Birmingham UK grindcore legends Napalm Death, we of course, caught them live on the original installment of this now-classic touring package – back in the Spring of 2016 in Minneapolis when the two combustible acts first dared to share the same bill and stage.

Napalm bassist Shane Embury is absent from the current tour (more than ably replaced on this nine-week US run by Matt “Mad Man” Sheridan, former Pro-Pain guitarist) and there hasn’t been any official statement, so we hope Embury is doing well. He missed a 2019 Napalm tour with Municipal Waste and Sick of It All recently too.

That also meant no opening performance from Dark Sky Burial, Embury’s side project of experimental, immersive fusion of dark ambient and experimental electronica (which we were looking forward to).

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So, the night began with the roaring volume of longtime Aussie band, The Hard-Ons, who have a recent new album in last October’s “I Like You a Lot Getting Older” (via Cheer Squad Records) but the Sydney band (who has been around since 1981!) does not have vocalist Tim Rogers (member since 2021) in the fold with them, and instead is playing with Jerry A, from the now-defunct longtime Portland punk band, Poison Idea.

As a result of this unique pairing, the short setlist would draw from both bands, beginning with 1994’s “Just Being With You” then pivoting to Poison Idea’s “The Badge” from 1990 (a song on which Pantera killed it on their remake for The Crow soundtrack a few years later).

We liked that bassist Ray Ahn still writes his setlist in part Korean and while Jerry A didn’t move around too much, he could vocally pull off both his own older songs, as well as those Hard-On punk classics.

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Normally, we’d say all eyes were on The Melvins, but the feeling was mutual, as two of three band members (the stoically robed Buzzo and bassist Steven Shane McDonald) wore clothing decorated with eye motifs that looked right back at the ready audience.

Can it be?! – the Montesano, WA band has been around since 1983, founded by vocalist/guitarist Buzz (that’s King Buzzo to you) Osborne, with drummer Dale Crover joining a year later, artfully merging punk rock and heavy music, to form a new subgenre all their own.

Over four plus decades, they’ve released more than 30 original albums, numerous live records, and too many singles and rarities, including 2024’s Tarantula Heart, and 2021’s acoustic Five-Legged Dog which reimagined their own heavy songs, alongside favorite covers.

For their hour-long set, most eras were covered starting with 2024’s “Working the Ditch” and working their way back, including “The Bloated Pope” a 2004 collab with Lustmord which was played early on. Most songs rolled into the next, with low lighting in green, blue, and reds, resembling a trippy black light poster come to life.

Crover worked in a small drum solo early and got his extra licks in elsewhere as the set progressed, with bassist McDonald’s white leisure suit looking like something from 70’s magician Doug Henning’s closet, as he worked his own bass spells. It took a few songs for the crowd to loosen up, but a swirling pit did emerge at the center of the floor.

Bassist McDonald happened to be celebrating his birthday; so of course, the crowd serenaded him (though no cake appeared from backstage) and he returned to the opening walk-on music by Blondie, by working in a verse of their “Dreaming” into the end of a song.

Fans roared as the band struck up “Honey Bucket” from 1993’s ‘Houdini’ album then moved into the next year’s “Revolve” before wrapping with crowd favorite, “Your Blessened” which dates back to the late 80’s, but is best known from on their 1991 album, “Bullhead’.

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Some technical issues led to a slight delay, but the crowd then knew it was time for the grindcore legends, as the large tarp with the Napalm Death logo was hoisted into place. Lights dimmed and the beginning notes of “Multinational Corporations, Part II” cued up an immediate mosh pit on the floor.

Though he didn’t originate with the band in 1981, vocalist Barney Greenway is automatically associated with the band, joining in 1990 and stomped about the stage in his black t-shirt and suspenders, like he was angrily chasing an elusive dog in his own living room.

The band’s songs work at max speed levels, with raging animalistic screamed lyrics, and between songs, Greenway espoused on how uncompromising and independent the band has been over its last four-and-a-half decades, stating that its inability to follow labels’ advice has led to them still being the still-relevant band they are today.

Add to that, a few terse words on the current state of government on both sides of the Atlantic, and it was easy to get riled up and need to release some energy.

Not to rest on any laurels, the band has continued to stretch the boundaries it created of modern grindcore and further experiment and evolve their sound, as evidenced by Embury’s fusion side project, which finds its way into the main band’s sound while also venturing into more industrial and groove-sounding tracks.

Recent studio releases include the critically acclaimed “Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism” (2020), and its sisterly follow up, Resentment Is Always Seismic – A Final Throw of Throes (2022), a 30 min. EP which continues the sound of the former album.

Set highlights, aside from the newer material, included the complex lyrics of 1988’s “Social Sterility” (Time for my omittance, from a sterile existence, where the weekend pays homage to stereotypical perpetuation”), going all the way back to their 1987 breakthrough, “Scum” and “Prison Without Walls” and having the crowd, still running in the circle pit, multi-task to help sing, “Nazi Punks F**k Off”, their classic take on an equally classic Dead Kennedys’ punk anthem.

The encore-less night (those aren’t punk!) would end on 1988’s “Unchallenged Hate”, still very much musical food for thought, almost forty years after it was first written. The pit churned to a final halt, the band took its bows, and everyone took a collective breath to be sent back out into the night, ears likely ringing if you braved it without protection.

Like some movies, sometimes the sequel is equal to, or even more satisfying than the original and with Napalm Death and Melvins on this Savage Imperial Death March Tour II, let’s just say we can’t wait for the three-quel!

ALL PHOTOS BY JASON DOMINGUES

(click on any image to enlarge and to see in full)

NAPALM DEATH at Madrid Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-05-24)

NAPALM DEATH at Madrid Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-05-24)

THE MELVINS at Madrid Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-05-24)

THE MELVINS at Madrid Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-05-24)

THE HARD-ONS w JERRY A at Madrid Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-05-24)

THE HARD-ONS w JERRY A at Madrid Theatre, Kansas City MO (2025-05-24)