The Melvins

London, Ontario - The Embassy - Summer '97

These guys are really fuckin cool. I had no idea who the hell they were. The opening act for Helmet. As far as I was concerned, Helmet could take a good long hard suck on my arse. The Melvins were/are ten times the band Helmet ever WISHED they were. SO... I'm standing there before the show watching sound check and Buzz Osborne, the huge haired guitarist, comes off the stage and I ask him a bunch of dumb questions like where they're from etc etc... All three members are gathered around by this point interjecting with asshole comments and just being funnier than fuck really. I ask if these three guys are the whole band and Buzz gets all serious and tells me the singer isn't here. Where is he? I ask. He fuckin OD'd on heroin in Toronto yesterday and he's in the hospital... Well now I'm bug eyed and asking what the fuck are ya gonna do? The other two band members, Mark Deutrom and Dale Crover are poking their faces in the conversation with comments like, kill the fucker is what I'm gonna do. He fuckin does this to us all the time. All 3 of them start randomly bitching about this poor half dead singer with a killer heroin habit. They're all ready to kick him outta the band, kill him, beat him down, whatever.

I'm thinking these guys are pretty fuckin sick of this guy leaving them hanging or they're really just worried about their buddy. Finally Buzz smiles and says, just kidding. We ARE the band. They posed for a group picture for me and yapped a little more. Laughed a little more. They just seemed like three guys out to have a good time.

THAT was my introduction to The Melvins.

They went out that night and blew fuckin Helmet off the stage. Killer tight n heavy. Les Paul's n screamin vocal. HEAVY. Good live band. Turns out, way back in the day, they were THEE original GRUNGE band from Seattle. I fuckin hate that term but whatever... If you ever get a chance and you like your music extremely heavy, The Melvins are a group you wanna see.

Kurt Cobain actually used to be a roadie for these guys. Believe it... Or not.

The Melvins Official Website

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