Melvins Bulldoze the Showbox

Melvins, The Showbox, Seattle, September 19, 2007 The Melvins have gotten a little rounder and a bit grayer (OK, Buzz’s gravity-defying mane is A LOT grayer). Middle age has indeed settled in and made itself at home. Sonically speaking, however, the Melvins haven’t gone soft. How could they? They’ve been bulldozing the rock landscape for more than 20 years—and bulldozers don’t tread lightly. If anything, their inimitable sound is nimbler and more muscular. Credit the recent addition of bassist/vocalist Jared Warren and second drummer Coady Willis (both of Big Business). The Melvins’ appearance at Seattle’s Showbox Sept. 18, the kick-off of their fall 2007 U.S. tour, left no question as to the band’s vitality. On this night, they stormed the stage like a pack of mal-tempered pachyderms, trampling their admirers beneath the overwhelming blunt force of their heavy metal stomp. For 90 minutes, a sold-out crowd absorbed the cataclysmic tremors and serrated shockwaves—and delighted in the menacing punishment. So mighty were their swells of sound, so severe were their wallops that one could have easily overlooked the genius of their song architecture, which is often unpredictable and deceptively complex. And yet it was this underlying brilliance that ultimately heightened the impact of their physicality. As reflected by the new lineup, much of Tuesday’s set focused on material from A Senile Animal—the first album to feature this latest Melvins incarnation. “Civilized Worm,” “A History of Bad Men” and “Rat Faced Granny” highlighted the band’s time-honored signatures (bottom-end bombast, syncopated rhythms, slow-tempo drones, King Buzzo’s snarling vocals, Dale Crover’s percussive wallop) but were augmented by newly acquired strengths—Jared’s shrieking, higher-octave wails and harmonies and the violent, tenacious thrashing of the Crover and Willis tandem. The Melvins are showing their age, all right. But they aren’t old.