The Melvins and Napalm Death, two long time veterans of the underground music world shared the stage and delivered stellar performances at a jam packed Bunker Brew Pub at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront this past Saturday night.
The Melvins have gone back to their two drummer lineup of Dale Crover and Coady Willis alongside Steven Shane McDonald on Bass and founding member Buzz Osborne on Vocals and guitar
The group kicked things off with “Working The Ditch”, “The Bloated Pope”, “Never Say Your Sorry” and “Evil New War God” before going back to their legendary album “Bullhead” for an infectious take of “It’s Shoved”.
Photo by Dave Allison
Crover and Willis pounded through “Billy Fish” which got an already amped up crowd even more excited before the band dropped into an absolutely thunderous rendition of “A History Of Bad Men” which saw McDonald and Crover take over on vocals and was followed by another “Senile Animal” album favorite “Blood Witch”.
In the blink of an eye the band launched into “Honey Bucket” which was once again highlighted by Crover and Willis while Osborne shouted out his trademark growl and McDonald held down the bottom end.
I’m not sure when but at some point a fuse blew and all of the lights in the entire building went out but that didn’t stop the band as they persevered right through the outage giving the crowd amazing performances of long time favorites “Revolve” and “Night Goat” to close things out.
The audience were seriously floored and The Melvins showed everyone exactly why they are absolute masters of their craft.
The lights were restored and soon Napalm Death hit the stage. Long time bassist Shane Embury was recovering from an illness so guitar tech Matt Sheridan filled in for him and didn’t miss a beat.
The group spun thru several eras of the bands storied discography including blistering renditions of songs like “Multi-National Corporations PT 2”, “Contagion” and “Suffer The Children”.
Barney interacted with the crowd a lot and thanked everyone for being there before introducing their cover of “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” which the band ripped through in grand fashion. They also played the classic “You Suffer” not once but twice.
Much to my delight the group ended the night with some of my favorites which included relentless performances of “Scum” and “Unchallenged Hate”.
Overall this was a phenomenal evening led by two of the worlds most groundbreaking and longest running bands on the planet.
The “Savage Imperial Death March Tour” resumes this Wednesday at Warsaw in Brooklyn.
May 7 Brooklyn, NY Warsaw
May 8 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club
May 9 Harrisburg, PA Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center
May 10 Pittsburgh, PA Mr.Small’s
May 11 Cleveland, OH Globe Iron
May 12 Detroit, MI Saint Andrew’s Hall
May 13 Grand Rapids, MI The Intersection
May 15 Cincinnati, OH Bogart’s
May 16 Louisville, KY Mercury Ballroom
May 17 Nashville, TN Brooklyn Bowl Nashville
May 18 St. Louis, MO Red Flag
May 19 Chicago, IL Metro
May 20 Milwaukee, WI The Rave II
May 22 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue – Main room
May 23 Des Moines, IA Wooly’s
May 24 Kansas City, MO Madrid Theatre
May 25 Omaha, NE The Waiting Room
May 27 Denver, CO Summit
May 29 Salt Lake City, UT Metro Music Hall
May 31 Bozeman, MT The ELM
June 1 Spokane, WA Knitting Factory Spokane
June 2 Seattle, WA The Showbox
June 3 Portland, OR Revolution Hall
June 4 Eugene, OR McDonald Theatre
June 6 Reno, NV Virginia Street Brewhouse
June 7 Berkeley, CA Cornerstone Berkeley
