Somehow in my three years as a resident of San Francisco, I had never made it out to The Chapel! Even though this venue is just a block away from my favorite bar, The Sycamore (come for the Bingo, stay for the brews and top-tier food), they just haven’t had a show in my sphere of metal or metal adjacent bands so far. That all changed when the King Dunn tour stopped by! Yes, only the second solo tour ever from King Buzzo of Melvins, accompanied by Mr. Bungle bassist and man of 1000 other bands, Trevor Dunn! JD Pinkus (of the late Butthole Surfers and ex Melvins) was the opening act and I was hyped. I love San Francisco for many reasons, one being I can walk to and from home to most shows, except for a few of those in the East Bay. The fans online to get in were super nice and the people watching/shirt game was on-point where I noticed not only Melvins, Bungle, and Butthole Surfers, but an eclectic bunch of avant-garde metal, Hardcore, and even a Madonna shirt, likely repped for Madge’s recent birthday!!
The Chapel is indeed, a converted chapel. With steeple-high ceilings on an otherwise shop-lined street in The Mission District, I found this to be a lovely place to see a show, with terrific sound and lightning. The venue staff was super professional and nice. Several big and small bars dot the layout, and there was a dimly lit but ample merch area. Any Melvins or King Buzzo show is a must for visiting the merch table. He always brings rare and limited vinyl, posters, merch, and all kinds of other knickknacks. Cash only, homies. Also, JD had some fun merch options too.
Somehow The Chapel feels big and intimate all at once. The room was packed, so I found a vantage point and hugged the wall but still had a pretty good line of site to the stage. I spotted my bro and master concert photographer Raymond Ahner (follow him) who was there to cover for Ghost Cult, right near the stage. But I had a good spot so being social was dialed down for the sake of the show. JD came on just by himself with a roadie and some banjos. He has an oddly shaped video wall thingy, kind of a cross between a paper mache butterfly and a halved apple core. It played some random videos while JD performed. His strong, gravely voice penetrated the room while his fun story-songs carried to the last person near the exit. Charismatic and personal, he told awfully fun jokes in between songs and generally was super entertaining. Not everyone can make a full venue feel like a backyard or a cramped living room hang, but JD did tonight. He made for the perfect opener for this show, and I look forward to seeing him again sometime soon as a headliner.
A quick changeover took place. Buzz is always a self-contained enterprise when touring solo. Adding Trevor didn’t change much. A very simple set-up for the two of them sees them on equal footing on stage. Once they started to play it was the perfect mesh of the two artists vibe. Buzz has two solo releases to draw from, a collaboration of music with Trevor, Eat The Spray, and some covers that are always part of the live repertoire. Just as with Buzz’ main gig, tonight was a masterclass in how to pick a setlist and let it fly.
Buzz is a great performer naturally, and just like the chemistry with his main gig, he and Trevor have a flawless simpatico in their performance. Buzz cuts through each track, not unlike a fully-amped performance. Feeling each change and lyric with move for emphasis, stalking his part of the stage. It’s hard to take your eyes off him, except for the wizard of bass to his left.
Dunn, for his part, is methodical and inspiring. Sometimes he is playing pure complimentary, with his fingers or a bow. Other times he is shredding leads or creating a veritable wall of sound with his arsenal doodads at his disposal. In between songs he is creating little motifs to keep the crowd engaged while Buzz changes guitars or tunes up. You might almost forget these guys play together occasionally in their careers, not constantly. Then it hits you, just how special this pairing is.
Together they make for a little dynamo of sound. Buzz churning out the songs, interpreted by the two of them. The setlist was again, immense with all eras of Melvins represented, both of Buzz’s solo offerings, Buzz and Trevor’s Eat The Spray release, including the recent Dicks cover, “Sidewalk Begging!” Other highlights included “Roman Bird Dog,” “Laid Back Walking,” and the closing trifecta of the classic “Boris,” the one hit the normies know – “Revolve,” and a great cover of “Shock Me” by KISS.
This tour will warp your notions of what live music can be, the band just wrapped their US tour, so don’t miss them as they next hit a European city near you soon.
Setlist (via setlist.fm)
Hung Bunny (Melvins cover)
Roman Dog Bird (Melvins cover)
Dark Brown Teeth (King Buzzo cover)
Laid Back Walking (King Buzzo cover)
Dirty One & the Poor Dog
Eat the Spray
I Like Stuff Clean
Sidewalk Begging (Dicks cover)
Suicide in Progress (Melvins cover)
Science in Modern America (King Buzzo cover)
Revolve (Melvins cover)
Boris (Melvins cover)
Shock Me (KISS cover)
Buy King Dunn music here:
https://ipecac.com/artists/king-buzzo
KEEFY