King Buzzo is one of the two remaining original members of the sludgy, hardcore, metal, punk band the Melvins. On Sunday night, Buzz got up on stage as a solo act at Santos Party House with nothing but his guitar and bizarre sense of humor. He played a raw, acoustic set of both Melvins songs and his new material, which definitely continues the legacy he has made with fellow band mates Dale Crover and Jared Grover. His new album, This Machine Kills Artists, exclaims that the music industry interferes with artistic practice for the sake of profit and commercial success. Keeping in the tradition of not caring for categorization, Buzz admits that he’s not sure what he’s doing, and has merely stripped down a few Melvins songs and written new material. It makes sense, because Buzz wrote majority of the Melvins material. The result is a cross between sinister metal and droning, poetic folk.
Buzz’s performance was invasive and intense as he told ominous tales filled with doom and gloom. He covered Alice Cooper’s The Ballad of Dwight Fry, a story of a man gone insane containing an allusion to the original monster movie actor, Dwight Fry, nicknamed “The Man with the Thousand-Watt Stare”. To ease the tension after a song, he would shout an abrupt “Thank you!”. A spirited, comical, opinionated, and absurd guy, King Buzzo’s banter with the crowd was direct. He explained, “This is a new thing for me, so if I fuck up, I’m just going to start the whole song over again and you’re gonna like it.” Buzz and his fellow band mates have been all about the music for the past 30 years; no flash, no gimmicks. In the midst of an ever changing music industry, Buzz Osborne has preserved a belief in the power of staying underground.
Article by: Jenna Pinch
Buzz Osborne
Buzz Osborne
Buzz Osborne
Buzz Osborne
Buzz Osborne
