10 March 2024 – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane – words by Joe Harbour
Mr Bungle decided to embark on a tour of Australia this year to promote The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny demo , and they brought their friends the Melvins with them.
This show was highly anticipated (and sold out) as the line up was all the way down the Valley Mall to Wickham Street well before kick off.
After waiting well past doors outside they decided to let us all in (apparently a delayed flight and soundcheck) and me and the editor decided up top would be best so we secured a spot and waited for the first act. Waiting for the first act was cool as we got a mix of yacht rock classics and we seemed to know almost all the songs (judging by the crowd sing-alongs).
Then the lights went down and Aha’s ‘Take On Me’ came on over the sound system and then The Melvins appeared in all their noisy glory! I can’t say I’ve ever been a big fan of the Melvins but tonight I was happy to cross them off my list of bands seen. Buzz Osbourne came out in what can only be described as a wizards robe.
We got tracks from the albums Houdini, Stoner Witch, and Bullhead among others. ‘Sesame Street Meat’ kicked off first and the drone of Osbourne’s guitar and the thumping drums were relentless till the set end. We powered through ‘It Shoved’ , ‘Anaconda’, ’Never Say You’re Sorry’ and ‘Bloated Pope’.
The crowd was stoked and people were already going over the barrier from the mosh. ‘Hag Me’ was next up then ‘Your Blessened, a ‘History of Bad Men’ and the my favourite Melvins tune ‘Honey Bucket’. Lastly it was ‘Revolve’ and a cameo from Trevor Dunn on ‘Night Goat’. Then they were gone. They did enough to get the crowd amped for what was coming next.
Mr Bungle is a band that defies expectation and for that I’m glad, their silly absurdist and usual tomfoolery is what makes them one of the most interesting bands you will likely hear. Tonight though, was thrash night. Mike Patton, Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn had recruited thrash legends Scott Ian of Anthrax and Dave Lombardo of Slayer to help with the ‘new’ material. It’s the first demo they did and it has been re-recorded with the addition of Ian and Lombardo. And it’s awesome.
So they started off with ‘Won’t You be my Neighbour’ a Mister Rogers song (which might be a bit lost on Australian audiences), then ‘Anarchy up your Anus’. As usual the absurdist tendencies were there right off the bat with Mike Patton having an awkward conversation with approximately 3000 people about anal sex. Next was ‘Bungle Grind’, and then after all the moshing ‘I’m Not in Love’ by 10cc was next. As a fan of 80’s music this was a fantastic surprise.
Next was ‘Eracist’, a cool catchy track who’s name says it all and then into a song I was again surprised to hear with ‘Malfunction’ by the Cro mags. I thought Mike Patton did a great impersonation of Jonathon Joseph here! Super good!
We then got advised of the word of the day in the form of “gronk”, and it was then ‘Speak “Gronk” or Die’, an SOD cover was blasted out! Usually they play it as ‘Habla Español o Muere’ but they had learned the Australianism that day. All done in Mr Bungle fashion and I was having a blast by this point.
‘Hell Awaits’ by Slayer was sneakily snuck in but not the whole song and then it was ‘Summerbreeze’ by Seals and Croft. They knocked it out the park and was a nice balance of thrash and silly. Speaking of silly you know the song Sandy sings in Grease, ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’? Yep they played it. They again ripped it up and Mike Patton showed that he’s not just some silly sausage screaming his lungs out. They did a really good job of it.
Circle Jerks fans were treated to ‘World up my Ass’ then ‘Raping your Mind’ followed by classic 90’s Bungle ‘My Ass is on Fire’.
Then to end the set ‘Sudden Death’ and then Buzz Osbourne came out and made his guitar holler on ‘Experimental Terror’ and they closed out the set with another classic hardcore song ‘I Don’t Need Society’ by DRI. Stoked.
What a night, I was buzzing and happy to see this band play finally after being a fan for so many years. Sure we didn’t get that many songs from the 90’s Bungle album but musicianship is always one thing that stands out about this band and we saw how they can thrash with the best of them as well as play some great 80’s yacht rock covers. It was like the band that started when Patton, Spruance and Dunn were in high school got its dream line up and went on tour.
Go see them if or when they come back!
