Show Review – Melvins at the Paradise Rock Club (06.03.11)

One cardinal rule that I learned from going to shows is that its rarely rewarding to see the same act twice within a short period of time. The reasons are numerous (terrible opening bands, being the most likely one). Thankfully, tonight’s show proved to be an exception.
First time that I saw Melvins was back in 2008, when Big Business opened for them. It wasn’t a bad show, but it was nothing compared to what took place tonight.
For one, there were no opening acts tonight – it was about Melvins and Melvins only. Second thing was that they played few of their 90s albums back-to-back (“Lysol”, “Eggnog” and  “Houdini”), which means that everyone had a chance to hear crowd favorites, whether its “The Ballad Of Dwight Fry”, “Honey Bucket” or “Night Goat”.
A little bit of history for those not in the know – “Lysol” (originally released in 1992) is the lesser-known album of the two (primarily due to being release on a small indie label), but its a terrific sludge record. “Houdini”, on the other hand, did garnered the band some notoriety, primarily due to being the first album that they recorded for Atlantic (and it doesn’t hurt that Kurt Cobain was involved in production, even though it sounds like band members weren’t too happy with the way that he handled his duties).
While, technically, there are no “hits” on either “Lysol” or “Houdini”, its certainly nice to know that the songs from both albums still sound as good as the day when they were recorded. Its a shame that more people don’t recognize this band for what they did, but then the last thing that I want to hear is Melvins on the radio and have their music being surrounded by grunge-wannabes and pretty pop/rock bands.
Needless to say, Melvins left no stone unturned that night and the audience responded in kind by doing some light slamming and crowd-surfing.
All in all, an amazing night – and I certainly expected nothing less out of Melvins.
Video credits:  caddyshark | bold99
See also: Collective Review of Melvins “Sugar Daddy Live”
Special thank you: Speakeasy PR / Monica Seide