Mud. Mud and muppets. Those two words best describe the feeling inside on Tuesday night, as took over the venue on their last U.S. date before heading up to Canada.
As hot as Denver was that night, it’d be easy to chalk up the sweat and mugginess to the weather rather than the noise, but I’d swear it was much more the latter that pounded the snot out of the audience (a surprisingly small one). “Mud” describes that sound best – heavy, slippery, thick mud.
“Muppets” describes the band’s hair and outfits — which, as overstated as they appeared, seemed to fit the band’s personality to a tee.
The Washington state-born band played in their current four-member lineup, which included founder (and hair king) Buzz “King Buzzo” Osborne on guitar and vocals and Jared Warren on bass while Dale Crover and Coady Willis displayed a fantastically synchronized dual trapset landslide of rhythm.
Osborne sported — in addition to his signature gray explosion of hair — a chrome-plated axe, and played each throbbing chord as if it had to obliterate the last, while moaning and screaming nearly unintelligible lyrics, and Warren’s bass threatened to crack bedrock. It truly felt as if the pressure from the sound was squeezing breath, sweat, even willpower out of the audience as the show went on.
Easily the most spectacular sight, though, was the drumming. Crover and Willis literally played as one drummer throughout — not mimicking each others’ movements as they writhed and flailed behind a giant double trap set (they shared a crash cymbal and some pipes and bells in between them, but otherwise each had a full set of toms, bass, snare, etc. to themselves), but anticipating each’s next movement, and responding with a perfect segue, or a crowning “one-better.” The effect was unlike any rhythm section I’ve seen — nothing like the Grateful Dead’s famous two-drummer approach, and more powerful than taiko drumming. It was more like a brilliantly syncopated avalanche, perfect in cadence, heavy enough to be completely destructive.
The band played two full sets, but seemed to really hit a stride in the second, beginning with the opening song “The Water Glass,” from their latest effort, “The Bride Screamed Murder.” It was a truly catchy call-and-response, military boot camp-styled, but the milieu gave it a particularly creepy, uncomfortable air.
From there they launched into about an hour of sludge-laden psychedelia, well met by their costumes. Both drummers wore barbarian-esque setups, with fur adorning each shoulder, while Warren sported what looked like a pornographic version of Hercules — complete with bejeweled cape, wrist bands and boots. It was Buzzo’s outfit that was most perplexing to me. With its long, black flowing robe and ultra high collar, it appeared at times to be a Wizard’s outfit, at others more a heavy mumu. The trademarked shock of gray hair exploding out of the top really gave King Buzzo’s image a perfect sense of hallucination.
Follow Reverb on Twitter! !
Billy Thieme is a Denver-based writer, an old-school punk and a huge follower of Denver’s vibrant local music scene. Follow Billy’s explorations at , and his giglist at .
Joe McCabe is a Denver photographer and a regular contributor to Reverb. Check out his .
