How about this for a tour: The sludge all star team Down and the incomparable Melvins are teaming up for a summer tour and will share the same stage at Showbox Sodo on August 11th. This is an incredible bill, but also a strangely odd lineup as well. Being that Down usually attracts more of a mainstream metal crowd even though the band consists of underground sludge legends like Kirk Windstein of Crowbar, Jimmy Bower of Eyehategod, and Pepper Keenan of COC. It’s the presence of Pantera singer Phil Anselmo and Bass player Rex Brown that really brings the old-school Pantera fans out of retirement. The Melvins on the other hand draw a quite different group of heavy music fans, I don’t want to pigeon hole anyone but it’ll surely be interesting to see how some of the old-school Anselmo fans react to the Melvins. Both bands are heavier than a heavy thing so it should be a great night regardless, especially with the PBR tall boys flowing.
In 2006 Down announced it was finally going to release a new record and tour again after a long hiatus. One of their first shows was at El Corazon in front of jam packed crowd, club felt way over capacity. They put up this metal barricade in front of the stage, mainly in response to former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell’s murder on stage in 2004. I saw Dimebag play on his last tour with Damage Plan at the same club, he was hanging in the El Corazon bar with the fans and it was awesome, but I’ll leave that for another post. The Down show was great, especially because everyone was wondering if Phil was going to be a mess. He proved he had cleaned up his act and Down tore the roof off. I‘ve seen Down 4 times now: Ozzfest 2002, El Corazon 2006, Vancouver 2007 with Megadeth and Heaven and Hell (worthy of another post as well), and Showbox Sodo in 2007.
The Melvins just celebrated their 25th anniversary give or take a few years at the Showbox at the Market with two shows on May 22nd and 23rd. These shows consisted of an early set by the Melvins of ’83 with original drummer Mike Dillard and Dale on bass. On the bill also was pre-grunge super group Green River, who reunited last summer at the SP20. Green River of course consists of Stone and Jeff of Pearl Jam, Mark and Steve of Mudhoney, Bruce of Mother Love Bone and Love Battery, and Alex Vincent on Drums. The Melvins then came out for a second set and played their seminal masterpiece “Houdini” in its entirety. I left at around 12:30 because I was leaving for Sasquatch the next morning and they were still playing. The Friday night Melvins show and the 3-day Sasquatch weekend was one for the ages, but again another post sometime down the road.
There is a lot of stuff I could talk between my experiences with these two bands, as I have seen the two bands not together a total of at least 12 times (Down 4, Melvins 8). This will be a kick ass show, very different crowds, and different vibes but two equally heavy bands to say the least. Presale on Now! I Got Mine!
Down with The Melvins
Day: Tue, Aug 11, 2009
Day: Tue, Aug 11, 2009
Doors open: 8:30 PM
Presale code: showbox
Ticket Prices: $25.00 ADV-$30.00 DOS
I might be game to go to this. Let's talk.
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