Melvins show at Amoeba brings racket and weirdness

Being a negative creep has gained some measure of respect of late, with grunge swinging its long pretty hair into the 21st century. Having mercifully transcended that genre, and the decade, the Melvins never actually went away; they are maybe better than ever, as one veteran of many Melvins shows spanning 14 years and way too many bass player changes might venture to say.

With the recent addition of Jared Warren and Coady Willis from Big Business, the band dashed off several cuts from newly minted disc “Nude With Boots” at an in-store performance at Amoeba Records on Tuesday, unveiling a more straight-ahead rock sound with the same weirdo metal pummeling we’ve come to expect from King Buzzo and Dale Crover.

But did I mention that the Melvins now have two drummers, with trap kits set up side-by-side, à la King Crimson or your prog wonder of choice? It makes for a fierce racket that sonically drives the band and lends a unique clamor and rattle. Plus, it’s just fun to watch. The new guys have a palpable reverence for their distinguished company. In short, they seem totally stoked to be in this band.

Always one to wring the goods out of otherwise eccentric and awkward stage antics (long periods of silence and even longer robes, for instance), Melvins puts the odd arrangement to good use, giving the Willis/Crover pair plenty of time to shine; as a display of dual percussion prowess it is pretty amazing. Synching up two live drummers is hard, man!

Melvins will return to the Los Angeles area for what should be suitably thunderous shows at the Glass House on Aug. 29 and L.A. State Historic Park (the "Not a Cornfield" site) on Aug. 31. Would anyone like to bet some joker’s going to show up, as the title suggests, nude with boots? The band may not have anticipated the door they were opening with this latest album. Could this mark a return to '90s-style streaking?

-- Grace Krilanovich

Photo of the Melvins courtesy myspace.com/themelvins