St. Louis marked the fourteenth stop on Melvins’ impressive 43-city tour in less than 60 days on their Five Legged Tour. And the friendly fans, many of who drove several hours and have seen them dozens of times before, were primed.
Under the lights at Old Rock House, Melvins’ frontman Buzz Osborne’s bushel of now all-white corkscrew hair gleamed with a mostly purple hue throughout their high-octane concert Wednesday night. The band wove their way through the packed,
dedicated crowd to the stage a little after 9 p.m. lunging into a cover of Flipper’s “Sacrifice” and not letting up, assailing die-hard fans with their mix of hard, fast-driving punk, metal, and grunge they’ve perfected during their nearly 40-year career.
Several fans started moshing with “Oven” and it, along with the head-banging never entirely let up.
The band seems only to be ramping up with several new album releases in a short amount of time although they only performed one off their just-released album Bad Moon Rising, “Mister Dog Is Totally Right,” incorporating guitar and drum metal jams, if you will.
This interview from PunkNews sums up this band that have heavily influenced the genres of grunge and alternative metal to doom metal, stoner rock, and more in a nutshell, “They’re a punk band that plays really slow. They’re the grunge band that invented grunge even though they don’t sound like any other band called “grunge.” They’re the indie band that was on a major label and enjoyed the experience. They’re the metal band …”
WE Are The Asteroids opened the night to the growing, appreciative crowd with about 40-minutes of a driving, forceful sound that beckoned fans to headbang however, a touch of harmony and melody seeped in allowing for a little swaying and reflection. Formed in 2015, this under-the-radar band should fly higher considering its lineup of former members of Ed Hall, Pain Teens, and Butthole Surfers.
The entire up-close, personal, well-lit concert is one for the books no matter the level of fan.
Find more photos: https://bit.ly/Melvins22cz
Melvins setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/melvins/2022/old-rock-house-st-louis-mo-13b075f1.html
