Blue Sky Above & Red Hell Below

Melvins, Taipei Houston

40th Anniversary Tour presented by Roadtrip To Outta Space, Arena Wien – Große Halle, Austria 20230613

Back six years ago, Bare Hands Society created a fine concert poster for an Alternative, Sludge and Grunge pioneer band and Redd Kross. This time, for the Roadtrip To Outta Space show of the same band, even two outstanding artists crafted an artwork: Michael Hacker (Grateful Dead, Voodoo Jürgens) and Irrwisch Design (Hexvessel, Savanah), both part of The Raw Stuff. 

While the Vienna Club Commission holds a meeting in the other premises, David Bowie, Otis Redding and The Clash shorten the waiting time at the big hall. It then gets filled constantly, as Taipei Houston plays their second gig in the city. As the two are the sons of Lars Ulrich, some might be a little biased. But they counter this with a strong performance, peppered with rattling riffs and wild drums from their debut „Once Bit Never Bored“. 

Then the world hit of a-ha starts the Melvins. The (Rock) music scene congratulates to the fortieth anniversary and Dave Grohl thanks for the phone number of Nirvana. Like The Obsessed, Orange Goblin, Earthless, Clutch, The Great Machine and more, they spent the last weekend at the Freak Valley Festival, streamed online by Rockpalast. Tonight, they don’t need much of a light show. On top, the spots are blue like the sky, and beneath, the band stands in a hellish red. 

Songs like „Honey Bucket“ and „Night Goat“ from „Houdini“ defined their vision of sound and are a burner live like The Beatles cover. This is why their show does not need any bric-a-brac, because of the power, that bestowed them a sold out hall and leads to online postings by local musicians like Fuzzman and le_mol. The influence of the Melvins (and King Buzzo’s appearance for artists like Michael Trimmel) continues. And hopefully it won’t be their last anniversary celebration tour..