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Live reviews
Mudhoney + Immortal Lee County Killers
+ Bird Blobs
- September 16th+ 17th, Koko - London
By Ole
The All Tommorows Parties festival has curated a series of
shows in London called Don't Look Back, where bands present
a select album in
its entirety live; Melvins have done Houdini, Dinosaur Jr.
have done Your Living All Over Me - to name some.
And now - for two nights only - Mudhoney will perform 1988's
Superfuzz Bigmuff + Early Singles (as Superfuzz is only six
tracks, they needed to add a little extra punch). Being a
Mudhoney fan(atic) since that very album there could be no
doubt about it, off to London!
Friday night starts out with the Immortal Lee County Killers,
who used to be a duo, but are now joined by an evil looking
cross between Ted
Nugent and Dave Wyndorf of Monster Magnet on keybords. They
still play noisy blues-punk. They work hard for it, but the
audience doesn't seem
to care as much as I do. Too bad.
Then on stage jumps Everett True, according to legend the
man who by his extensive writing broke grunge in the media.
He babbles something about Mudhoney being the oldest band
in the world, but before it all turns to 'Emberrassing Grunge
Revival' the band is on stage and their first single Touch
Me I'm Sick is hammered out. And within a second a human volcano
seems to errupt in the middle of the floor, spewing out a
slamdancing, stagediving, crowdsurfing throng of people.
Damn, I simply can't belive that it's a 17 years old song.
No time for sentimental nostalgia though, as Sweet Young Thing
Ain't Sweet No More
blows away the last sceptisism; this ain t no revival this
is shithot rock'n'roll. 'Here's a song we haven't played for
15 years, we kind'a know it' so Mark Arm introduces their
cover of Sonic Youth's Halloween. Sure there is a few false
starts during the show, and In 'N' Out of Grace more or less
falls apart halfways. But I'll trade perfection for soul any
day.
Saturday starts out with australian Bird Blobs. They play
noise rock in the AmRep/Touch and Go vein, the guitarist does
make interesting noises, but they are never really out there.
No introdution this time, a hello and Mudhoney are off again.
Steve Turner breaks a string in the first song, Mark breaks
one in the second.
No problem. Nothing can throw their cool tonight. They are
playing with all of the confidence songs as - dare I say -
classic as these give you,
but with absolutely none of the arrogance that could come
along with it. Joking around and clearly enjoying themselves
immensely.
Then they arrive at In 'N' Out of Grace again, and tonight
it's like being hit by an 18 wheel truck. Dan Peters and the
new rock-solid bass
player Guy Maddison locks in to a thunderous groove. Through
the sonic
storm Mark and Steve shares a look that says: Will he really
keep on pounding that drumkit until it falls apart? Then,
as by telepathy, they all hit that absolutely face-melting
riff, turning the venue into near riot. I'm lost for words:
this transcends all critical stance. Pure fucking bliss.
Grunge? Who cares about genres! This was just good old fashioned
dirt-smothered rock'n'roll and then some, that made you smile
wide and loose yourself in the craze of it all.
Touch me i'm sick? You can't touch this!
See the full setlist for both nights here: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~ptn/mudhoney/
Immortal Lee County Killers 
Bird Blobs 
Mudhoney 
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