Melvins and dudes at Amoeba

After (1) the Internet went down and (2) my InDesign file crashed, I knew that the rock gods were telling me to restart the computers, lock up the office, and start driving across town to the Melvins tour kick-off show/release in-store for their 21st album at Amoeba in Hollywood.


I'm not an antisocial person, but I have no qualms going to shows by myself. I don't have to wait around for anyone and can get closer to the stage. I can hang out any time; at a concert I want to soak in the music. Tonight's show started right on time at 6:00, and lasted an impressive 45 minutes (for a free show). Heavy, grinding, pummeling, and relentless are some of the adjectives often employed to describe the band's sound--which ranges from proto-doom to precise, crazy-time signatures powered by the two drummers--but I think exuberant can be added to the list. Yes, they are dead serious, but some of the sped up songs actually touch on fun.


Eventually, the show will be posted here. As you might expect from a stoner rock band with sludge metal tendencies and punk work ethic, the show was a real sausage party. That and the fact that the group has been around for almost 25 year meant that I was likely to run into friends...


Above, a familiar face. Ken is an award-winning industrial designer and longtime friend and contributor to GR who works down the street from Amoeba. Good thing I sent him a text message to see if he was going to the show because I had misinformed him that the show was tomorrow!


Brian used to work at the record store around the corner from my house and now works at Amoeba. You know the show was loud because he's wearing earplugs way in front of the store. I don't see him often enough, but at least I get to see his wife and baby every now and then when I take Eloise around the Reservoir!


Here's Adam Bomb, legendary KXLU hardcore DJ and veteran of too many L.A. punk bands to count. I haven't seen him since the San Pedro premiere of the Minutemen documentary (which he was in). Perhaps Adam's most notorious group is Brujeria. You wouldn't know he's part of the allegedly Satan-worshipping drug-dealing Mexican death metal cartel, though, since he wears a bandana onstage and goes by the alias of Fantasma. He informed me the band is working on some new stuff, so lock up your children.