One rainy evening in columbus, mike & i ventured into newport (yucky) music hall to see Tomahawk, The Melvins, and Skeleton Key. aside from standing out in the rain talking to some iron maiden fan, everything started out normal enough. Skeleton Key opened not too long after we entered. after hearing an audio clip on the internet, i wasn't expecting anything really great, groundbreaking, or even entertaining. as it turns out, it wasn't great or groundbreaking, but damn entertaining. basic, kinda off the wall rock (primus anyone?), but with one rad catch - a percussionist who beat on all sorts of stuff. from barrels, to road signs, fire extinguishers, and pogo sticks, the dude was full of energy, and played right on all night. he was tons of fun to watch, especially when he brought out the buzzsaw. nothing i'd buy a cd of, but i'd definately come out if they came to town again.
after a bit of a wait, the infamous Melvins took the stage. is there very much left to say about The Melvins? as they walk onto the stage (dressed in black cloaks with the letters "F" and "U" written on them), fire alarm lights go off, and a 15 minute feedback festival ensues. after that, we were forced to stand through over an hour of straight up chug-a-chug metal from 40 year olds. but hey, it's The Melvins, so at the very least, you get a little chuckle out of it. i know some people would be way into this, and i probably would have enjoyed it a little more too, if they hadn't played for soooooo long. geez.
next up, after a quick set-up, tomahawk took the stage. mike patton stands in a dark cloakalmostkomonolookingthingy with a gas mask on, and stares at the crowd. after a second, he folds his hands, bows to the crowd, and begins screaming into the mask. perhaps one of the cooler starts to a set i've seen in a long time. what went on after that, though, was nothing major to write home about. basic nu-metal song structure with softer verses and loud choruses made me think twice about really getting into it, but i'll admit, it was pretty catchy. the best part of the set was obviously patton's vocals. the man has an incredible voice, and uses some tubular filters. the dude on guitar from the Jesus Lizard was pretty cool too, and some of their instrumental numbers were pretty awesome. they should do more of those.
overall, it was a fun time. the music was pretty good. my only complaint was the jacked up shirt & music costs (newport takes a profit from those sales, fuck that), and the dumbass crowd. that night was "take the frat brothers to newport" night. while there were a few guys who definately knew what they were talking about, most of the people there were straight outta Urban Shitfitters with their spiked hair and 2,000,000 oz. cups of beer (that were thrown all over the crowd). oh well. good show overall.