The Melvins @ The Hi-Fi, December ’13

Maybe it’s the double drummer thing, maybe it’s just their sound guy, but holy shit balls The Melvins were L-O-U-D !!! Without a flaw in their set they hammered out an intense, musically genius set.

Discernibly louder than openers Helmet, yet without any trace of that muffled, bass-so-heavy-it-kills-any-other-frequency sound of their set.

The Melvins were clean, their playing was tight, their obvious enjoyment at being there was apparent.

I would expect they left many a fan totally satisfied (including a mate of mine who caught them waaaaay back in the day at The Peakhurst Inn of all places?!!)

From opener Hag Me it was a joyous ride through a random selection of tracks, notably steering clear of anything from Houdini (as they toured on that album recently anyway). Instead we got (in no particular order except how I recall) War On Wisdom, We Are Doomed, Sweet Willy, Growing Disgust, Youth Of America, Let It All Be, You’re Blessened and then I mixed up some memories but I do believe in there was also Waterglass, City Dump and LYSOL plus possibly Mr. Ripoff too.