Punknews.org

|
Sign In | create an account

Jello Biafra with the Melvins

live in Los Angeles (2005)
Alternative Tentacles Records

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: BrandonSideleau
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on November 22nd 2005

Of all the great punk shows I've seen in my life and, of all of the great classic punk "icons" I have met, never have I had a chance to watch or meet the seemingly reclusive Jello Biafra. He always seems to surface once and a while for some spoken word shows, and the one time recently he DID come to L.A., I didn't know until it was too late.

I have been a Dead Kennedys fan (like many of you) and a Jello Biafra fan in general for many, many years. I own and adore almost everything the man has created, from the awesomely bizarre Witch Trials album to his collaborations with both D.O.A. and NoMeansNo. Over the past year we have seen a sudden explosion of activity by Jello, which has included 2 new albums with the Melvins (Never Breathe What You Can't See and Sieg Howdy) and an extensive musical tour (something, to my knowledge, Jello hasn't done in many years). So, needless to say, when I heard that this tour was making its final stop in Los Angeles I was extremely excited.

I got to the show about only an hour early (no thanks to the horrible traffic on the 101), but luckily I arrived to a relatively empty Henry Fonda Theater. It's a nice place (I saw the Circle Jerks here little more than a year before) but the barricade in front of the stage (which is horribly common these days) was thoroughly irritating. The first band, called Killradio, came on at 9pm. I had heard the name before but honestly had no idea what to expect. They played a surprisingly good mix of hardcore and pop-punk, while managing to avoid the trappings of most new bands by incorporating plenty of funky and jazzy guitar riffs, not to mention a healthy dose of intensity. Their singer/guitarist really knows how to put on a show and can play his ass off. I haven't heard anything from them before but I'll have to check 'em out sometime; it was a good start to a legendary evening.

Next, after a refreshingly short wait, was a band called Altamont fronted by Melvins drummer Dale Crover. They seemed to play a heavy blend of hard rock with some pop sensibilities, very tight and well done, but nothing too memorable. Maybe I'll have to pick up their album and see if I can get into it better.

Anyway, they played a short set and, rather than leaving the stage and pulling the curtains, two band members (the drummer and the keyboardist/bassist) remained onstage making some absolutely cacophonous noise as the Melvins set up (I guess to keep us entertained). After about ten minutes of noise they left stage and on came the Melvins, which proceeded to plunge into yet another 5 minutes of loud, screeching noise (which pissed off some of the audience, but I thought it was great) before blasting into the epic "Amazon" from their 1999 album The Maggot. This is one of my favorite songs by them, so I was psyched, until they went into the next song "The Bloated Pope" (from their recent Pigs of the Roman Empire album with Lustmord) which happened to be yet ANOTHER favorite of mine. The Melvins are easily the absolute LOUDEST band I have ever seen; there were times when I didn't think my ears could take much more. Now I've seen some REALLY hard bands, but nothing comes close to the insane noise these guys produce; it's just terrifying and awe-inspiring at the same time. I can see why it might not be everybody's thing, but it's certainly MY thing.

Anyway, their excellent set concluded and on stage sprinted the man himself, Jello Biafra, dressed in a bloody lab coat and surgeons gloves, under which he wore 2 shirts, one a large upper-body-covering American flag and the other his new "Democracy We Deliver" t-shirt. They went on to play an amazing set of songs off both of the new 'Jelvins' LPs, several Dead Kennedys songs, a loving cover of Wesley Willis' "Rock N' Roll McDonalds," and, surprisingly, the song "Forkboy" by Jello's former collaboraters Lard. Jello may have gained a few pounds over the years, but he thankfully hasn't forgotten how to put on a show, as he still managed to do his fair share of freaking out, stage diving (shirtless at one point, glad I wasn't under him and his sweat), and the strange hand motions he is famous for. His vocals are still in high quality -- very clear and just as snotty as ever before. He, expectantly, went into a long anti-Bush "spoken word" piece during the interlude in the classic DK track "Bleed for Me." Some of the security seemed offended; I thought it was great.

Anyway, a killer show with passionate performances by all. The set list for the Jelvins was "approximately" as follows:

Plethysmograph
McGruff the Crime Dog
When Ya Get Drafted
California Uber Alles
I Am the Owl
Yuppie Cadillac
Bleed for Me
Chemical Warfare
Forkboy
Caped Crusader
Voted Off the Island
The Lighter Side of Global Terrorism
Lesson in What Not to Become

Encore:

Rock N' Roll McDonalds
Holiday in Cambodia

Login to rate this album

People who liked this also liked:

Please login or register to post comments.

What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

Mr_Streetcore (December 21, 2005)

i'm quite the fan of jello biafra with the melvins i have the albumn sieg howdy i guess i need to get some more and by the look of things this new albumn would be a good start

Anonymous (December 11, 2005)

Killradio was fantastic. They used to have another guitar player which freed up the singer to do the craziest antics.

Anonymous (December 10, 2005)

I was at that show too, and I have to agree about the first band Kill radio. I had such a different expectation of what they were going to be like, I assumed they would be some poppy, phony band and I was really impressed at how tight they sounded. I was standing in the center of the floor and it was wild because Jello came out on kill radio's first song and watched from the floor in the middle of the audience right next to me for their entire set. I would definitely go see them again and am keeping an eye out for their next one.

I thought Altamont was a bit underwhelming and that The Melvins who I really love played a bit too long and it got redundant feeling. But when Jello came out as the bloody butcher the show just exploded.

it really felt like being back in time watching a dead kennedys show only with a better backing band.

overall, if was a seriously memorable show and I loved the first and last act the best.

Anonymous (December 10, 2005)

I saw the jelvisn a month or so ago in olympia and it was great too. Though i had to leave early at 1:15 it was great it was pretty much the same as you mentione amazing with the lab coat and such. But the melvins thing this being there home base maybe jello wasn't ready or shit but they played a noise thingy for literally 40 minutes but when jello went onstage it was well so amainz. Also we had this old hobo looking guy called baby gramps openign first he did this weird acoustic dittys about stuff such as scrotums it was bizzare but great. Akimbo and a few others also opened like this band which i can't remember but anyway very great especially the Wesley Willis cover

Anonymous (November 26, 2005)

Bad impersonation... They didn't use "gay" as an insult one time, they used it at least twice in the same interview, so I'm guessing they used it more in other settings. And you failed to refute the fact that Iron Cross (a popular band whose members were friends with Ian MacKaye and other DC bands, as well as a lot of Boston hardcore kids) sang in "Psycho Skin" about how they just beat their "third queer." The fact that such a lyricism was accepted (and became their most popular anthem of the era- Agnostic Front makes them remembered for "Crucified," though) shows that the general mindset was very homophobic... I think most of those guys eventually realized how stupid that attitude was and made a complete 180 into preachy, political types, but there was a time when it wasn't that way.

-Will

Anonymous (November 26, 2005)

Using gay as an adjective in a negative way one time is exactly the same and belonging to a religion completely intolerant of homosexuals. Yeah, they're about square.

Charles Bronson invented powerviolence.

Crust doesn't exist, I just make you THINK it does.

-Wayne the Brain AKA Will

Anonymous (November 24, 2005)

I'd say a lot of hardcore kids were homophobes in the original DC scene... Ian MacKaye and company use "gay" as an insult in early interviews and I read of an account where Wendell Blow of SOA and Iron Cross jumped a gay hustler... I think the unity was within the scene at that time, but I don't think they had any strong political ambitions as to the equal rights of other human beings.

-Will

Anonymous (November 24, 2005)

On another note.....Jello isn't THAT fat....he's just alittle over-weight....just like the majority of other men turning close to 50. Maybe he should workout with Hank or something.

Anonymous (November 24, 2005)

Bad Brains were one of the greatest bands of all time, punk or not, but yes, they did fall into sad homophobia during the mid-eighties. I don't think they were in the late 70's and early eighties.....when they were in the local DC scene and everybody was cool with everybody else. I'm thinking HR started smoking WAY too much weed and got all crazy on religion. I think alot of their "Jah" stuff is really cool and I love reggae.......but the homophobia sucks, way to blow it. OH well......still a great fuckin' band- HR laid the blueprint for how a punk rock frontman should go nuts onstage.....in fact the "other" HR (Henry Rollins) has said he owes much of his excellent stage presence to watching HR in the late 70's.

Anonymous (November 24, 2005)

The Bad Brains were asshole homophobes in their 80's, but their music is completely better than 99.9% of bands from their era... Including MDC, The Big Boys, SSD, Negative Approach, Necros... Almost all of them.

-Will

Anonymous (November 24, 2005)

i cant believe anyone actually likes bad brains

Anonymous (November 24, 2005)

I saw the Dicks one time... They wanted to smoke some weed with me, but I just stole it and left a note degrading their sexuality. Oh well.

-Will

lushj (November 24, 2005)

"lose," not "loose." Sorry, it's been bugging me for days.

The Jelvins were pretty rad @ Bat Fest 2005 (the Frisco Halloween show)- one of these years I won't be working it and will be able to actually enjoy the entire show. I was extra-stoked on The Dicks too!

Anonymous (November 23, 2005)

jello needs to loose some weight

Anonymous (November 23, 2005)

I'm suprised Jello would let Killradio - a major label band - open for him.