Melt Banana – Nov 18th – The Prophet Bar – Dallas, TX
I know that this is the December entry but I really had no other place to put this and I wanted to document it. As you will see as this post continues that the theme is about friends, family holidays and adventure – with a continuing narrative of getting to see people that I normally don’t get to spend alot of time with throughout the year. Two of my closest friends – Duane and Tony who I’ve been friends with for over 17 years – was really looking forward to seeing those dudes and the perfect setting no less – the musical interests that we share is a strong fiber and running current to our friendships and one of the things I get to share with these dudes that I don’t get to with my other friends is a love of totally crazy, chaotic, bizarre noise music like the Melvins or the subject of this post – from Japan – Melt Banana.
They were playing the old Gypsy Tea Room which is now called the Prophet Bar that has two rooms and I was pleased that they were playing the smaller room.
The show had a few sound issues and they didn’t play as long because of it – but their really isn’t anything like this band and they were as brutal as ever.
Scratch Acid – Dec 8th – Trees – Dallas, TX
Scratch Acid might not make the kind of music that elicits universal joy. Difficult and straining can only begin to describe them. Yet for the mostly full audience at Trees, this was not a deterrent. Matter of fact, this was a joyful affair. One that was recorded for a future live album, no less.
The four-piece doesn’t have a ton of material to choose from, since they only did two EPs and an LP in their five years together. Still, playing a little over an hour, the band managed 20 songs from their 28-song catalog.
The live sound was a drastic improvement. If their albums sounded a little cold and numb, their carefully crafted live show was anything but. Sprinting tom-tom fills parading bass lines and clenching guitar lines by all had weight under the one-man fireball that is David Yow.
Yow, never one to even attempt to sing like a choirboy, puked his vocals all over his microphone. Rarely standing still while the rest of the band were entrenched on opposite ends of the stage, he often smiled as he looked into the section of the crowd going nuts at every sonic bottle rocket the band fired off.
“Welcome to the 2011 Scratch Acid Reenactment Program,” Yow said after Crazy Dan – Also quipping that five different songs were love songs, he was noticeably appreciative and gracious to the whole crowd. And not only did he introduce his bandmates, he mentioned the names of the sound men as well. You definitely don’t hear that at a regular show.
Though Yow has stated the money he’s received from reuniting Scratch Acid and The Jesus Lizard has been very generous, the band certainly didn’t play like they were punching a clock. Washam in particular used every facet of his drum kit, which looked like it was made up from spare parts from four different kits, and played with gusto.
As for the crowd, a lot of them were reuniting with a band they fell in love with in high school. A majority of the audience looked like they could have been at the band’s shows when they were originally an Austin-based act in the early ’80s. All in all it was a great show and I was glad to have finally saw them.
Man…or Astroman? – Dec 17th – Sons of Hermann Hall – Dallas, TX
So the day began actually with a wonderful Christmas tradition I enjoy with my family which going to see the seasonal ice sculptures at the Gaylord Resort right by the airport. They also have inner tube sledding and a million of other things to do. I love it and its become a real staple of our holiday season.
So we had been doing that all day and I almost considered skipping the show tonight. We got at 10pm and everyone was going their separate ways and I was way more into Christmas mode than I was rock show mode and again almost skipped it, but this was one of my all time fave bands in the 90s and going to their shows with my friend Patrick (who was also going to be there) are some of my fave memories from that time. So again in the spirit of the season and seeing old friends we forged on.
We got there, parked, saw Patrick and walked in right as Man or Astroman were starting. Sons of Hermann was really the perfect setting for their reemerging, and opener Inside the Atom was a nice reintroduction to their Devo-informed instrumentals, backed by three screens of psychedelic visuals. In the 1990s, their fusion of New Wave and surf-punk was rather unique. Since then, it’s been done, just not very well or too seriously.
Singer/multi-instrumentalist Rob “Coco” Del Bueno was a bolt of energy, leaping across the stage in his red jumpsuit and helmet. Guitarist Brian Causey, code name Star Crunch, had apparently cracked his rib in Austin the night prior, but carried on, augmented by a second female guitarist. By Maximum Radiation Level the quartet was fully oiled.
If anything, MoA is a study in tongue-in-cheek; of not taking music too seriously, thankfully they haven’t lost their sense of humor. They reformed last year at the SXSW festival and I went to all three of their performances. Since then they have just been doing like sporadic shows here and there and I think this is the first show in Dallas since around 1999. Again, I’m a dedicated fan and some of my fave shows ever have been MOA shows.
One thing I DON’T recall happening the first time around back in the 90s that happened at all of the SXSW shows last year and was also in full effect at this show, that I have to say is a total detriment to the show, and that’s that the drummer, Brian Teasley (who is the original drummer btw) will abandon his drumset unexpectedly and run up to the mic and do a spontaneous monologue of spouting insults at everything and everyone that you can tell that he’s quite impressed with, while the other members of the band are cringing and seem embarrassed – Here is some of his handiwork at this show –
“There’s always one guy in the mosh pit who thinks he’s at a Stormtroopers of Death show.”
“The only bassline I know is ‘Jerry Was a Race Car Driver.’ Primus stuff is actually pretty easy.”
The band will be kicking ass and building momentum and this snobby asshole with manboobs will break character and come out behind his drum set all through the show doing this, effectively killing any and all momentum.
When Bitch Tits wasn’t hurling his snarky, unnecessary insults the band was actually pretty great and was so good to see them.
A goddamn Tesla coil was lugged on stage for the closing number. It’s got to be really hard to tour with a Tesla coil. No word if this tour will signal new material, but they blew through the 18 song-set with more ecstatic fury and volume than most bands I’ve seen this year,
By the way: The lady guitarist’s grandmother played theremin on Principles Unknown.
Setlist –
Inside the Atom
Evil Plans of Planet Spectra
Maximum Radiation Level
Escape Velocity
Planet Collision
9-Volt
Put Your Finger in the Socket
Invasion of the Dragonmen
The Man made from C02
Television Fission
Rocketship XL-3
24 Hours
Classified
U-Uranus
Sferic Waves
Destination Venus
Special Agent Conrad Uno
Principles Unknown
