| Melvins / Altamont - Orangeville CA, The Boardwalk Friday 31st January 2003 |
I arrived in California with the reverse of altitude sickness (sea-level sickness perhaps?), and suddenly being able to see in colour. (I’m now used to the whites and browns of the snow and desert landscape in Colorado.)
The venue was the Boardwalk in Orangeville just to the West of Sacramento, and the ticket had “NO PHOTO/CAN&BOT/RECORDERS” plastered all over it, so I left my camera at home, sensing that it would probably be a pretty large venue.
We arrived in good time finding the venue in the heart of a industrial type area. This was obviously not a large venue at all, as a notice inside had “max capacity 200” posted inside – promising.
The show was due to kick off at 21:00 with an unlisted support band, but there was a huge delay and they didn’t take to the stage until 22:00.
So Altamont at last arrived. This is Dale Crover’s side project (the drummer from Melvins), and it’s a pretty good mix of grungy/heavy metal type music with loud, heavy riffs from both the guitar and bass. Dale plays the guitar and sings in this band and apparently the drummer wasn’t the usual one that plays, but they were pretty impressive all the same.
Halfway through the set Dale calls out to the audience “Is the Captain in the house?” - “where’s the Captain?” A small figure darts out onto the stage from next to me with a sea-captains hat on, and is introduced to the crowd as “Jello Biafra” (which he clearly isn’t), but it’s Joey the regular drummer who goes on to sing one song, then plays drums on the next one before bounding back into the crowd to huge applause. Dunno what that was all about!
At the end of the set while Altamont were still playing, Kevin the Melvins bass player came onstage, plugged in while Dan, the previous bass player, packed up and departed. As Kevin got into a groove, Dale quickly moved from guitar to the drum kit, shedding his trousers for his trademark Speedos with spare drumstick poked through the sides. Then Buzzo and second mystery guitarist began setting up, with the bass riff from ‘The Anti-Vermin Seed’ continuing on and on relentlessly.
Hold on! The second guitarist is none other than bloody Adam Jones from Tool, who proceeded to play the first song using an electric shaver (or purportedly a Epilady) on the strings.
The hand-over to Melvins was over in a matter of minutes without a break in the music and so began one of the best gigs I’ve had the opportunity to witness in my long gig going career.
I can’t remember any of the band even saying anything to the crowd, as some songs were joined into long melodies, and there was only the briefest of pauses between the others.
Mesmerising is a word that only serves to completely underestimate the show. It didn’t sound like there was a note out of place and they could have played for hours. So when it did finally come to an end at 01:00 the crowd stood in awe but still wanting more of course – but after more than two hours (three in Dales case) who can blame the band them for retiring backstage without an encore?
The only downer? Being at the front without a camera – bollocks!
skippy
Melvins set-list: The Anti Vermin Seed / With Teeth / Night Goat / Revolve - We All Love Judy - Brain Centre At Whipples / Let It All Be / Hooch - Mombius Hibachi / The Bloat / Manky / The Fool, The Meddling Idiot / Promise Me / Foaming / Black Stooges / The Ballad of Dwight Fry
Altamount set-list: Saint Of All killers / Up River / Chicken Lover / Pirate Love / Frank Black / Bathroom Creep / Civil War Fantasy / Our Darling / Swami
