Mudhoney / Meat Puppets

Early door show tonight, so for those of us outside of Great Manchester we were inevitably going to miss Metz, which is a real shame as I hear they are excellent, somewhat like Jesus Lizard. We actually only make it into the venue for Meat Puppets (the spiral staircases in the centre of the building are no longer used, so it's a frantic dash to find away upstairs as we hear them playing through the ceiling). At least we didn't miss them completely, like many poor folk did…



I wish the Meat Puppets were on for a little longer, their set seems very short (I believe it was eight songs), compared to Mudhoney's which lasted well over an hour (I know they're the headliners, but both bands are legends in this music genre). Of course there's the songs that brought the band to many people's attention as the songs from Nirvanas MTV Unplugged; 'Plateau', 'Oh Me' and 'Lake Of Fire', including a cover of The Beach Boys 'Sloop John B'. It's the longer jams during 'Up On The Sun' and other greats like 'Comin' Down' that show you these guys are more than just those three songs.

What is interesting (though maybe no surprise if you think of the headliners) is that there's only one song 'The Monkey And The Snake', which they play tonight that is from an album after 1994's 'Too High To Die'. They are joined onstage tonight by Elmo Kirkwood, guitarist Curt's son, who gives that extra layer to the songs. Shandon Sahm is the bands drummer, having played with brother Cris and Curt since 2009 (and for three years prior to that).



Time for Mudhoney now, most people have arrived and the venue is ridiculously sweaty, there's no air conditioning in here. The staff open the fire exits but this creates little relief. Plus even the smaller Manchester 3 has a bigger bar than this (quite new) bar crammed into the corner. Just saying…

Mark Arm, who does not look his 51 years, joins Steve Turner, Guy Maddison and Dan Peters on stage and it's straight into their set with 'Poisoned Water'. Now whereas Meat Puppets had very little songs but they did border the 5 minute mark, Mudhoney play 25 songs in little over an hour. There's not much banter, apart from when something goes wrong with a hardcore tune and they have to start again (Arm: "You've gotta get the hardcore right") and when they return from the encore Arm says he has just come up with the saying "We Yanks love you Mancs."

There's many hits during this show, featuring Mudhoney's trademark full on dirty ass grunge with tight riffs and snarling vocals. 'You Got It (Keep It Outta My Face)', 'Suck You Dry', 'Touch Me I'm Sick', and 'Here Comes Sickness' keep the swirling moshpit going (though I don't know how in this heat). The encore features as many covers as originals, with Fangs 'The Money Will Roll Right In', the Dicks 'Hate The Police' and 'Fix Me' by Black Flag all ending the show after 'Into The Drink' and 'In 'N' Out of Grace'.



This show was an amazing one for grunge fans like myself, who are stuck in the early nineties music-wise (and why not, what is there really to rival it these days?). If only more shows could get two bands of this calibre on one bill…

Poisoned Water
Slipping Away
I Like It Small
You Got It (Keep It Outta My Face)
Suck You Dry
Get Into Yours
Where the Flavor Is
Sweet Young Thing (Ain't Sweet No More)
Judgement, Rage, Retribution and Thyme
No One Has
Good Enough
Douchebags on Parade
Touch Me I'm Sick
What to Do With the Neutral
I'm Now
The Final Course
I Don't Remember You
Chardonnay
The Only Son of the Widow from Nain

Into the Drink
Here Comes Sickness
In 'N' Out of Grace
The Money Will Roll Right In
Hate the Police
Fix Me

FUTURE GIGS