Categories: Misc

Flashback – Melvins and Rush share the stage!

Cow Palace, S.F. – 2/12/94. The majority of the Rush crowd HATED the Melvins and booed them, so the Melvins played slower just to piss them off. It was amazing!

i_am_ümlaut

Truth is stranger than fiction, as they say, and the best proof is strange tour pairings – to witness:
Exhibit A: Sonic Youth and Neil Young
Exhibit B: Devo and Sun Ra
Exhibit C: Melvins opening for Rush
While not as well documented as SY/Neil Young tour, nor as random as Devo scaring off Sun Ra fans on Halloween Night in 1975, the meeting between Melvins and Canadian kings of prog rock uber-nerdiness still deserves a closer look (one might also argue that this slowed down version of Rush classic shows that two bands are not too far off from each other, but I digress).
According to an interview that Buzz did with Ventura County Star, Rush fans didn’t took too kindly to Melvins:

We did some shows opening for Rush that were pretty weird — their audience totally didn’t get it.

Further confirmation comes from one self-described Rush fan:

Not that The Melvins are bad, but a Rush crowd may not necessarily be a Melvins crowd. The Melvins got booed mercilessly and they just played their set as fast as they could. I kind of felt bad for them.

According to the same VC Star interview Rush themselves were far nicer to the band – the evidence in the form of postcard mentions both Primus and a bottle of champagne. Even more evidence comes in the form of Youtube vid that captures the band playing “Oven” (do note comments from Mark Deutrom, another former member of Melvins):

Further Reading:
The Strangest Opening Act Bookings Ever (Ranker)

Ilya S.

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