Supporting Melvins on their ‘Stop Your Whining’ European tour, Redd Kross (which is 50% made up of Melvins band members) returned to the UK following the success of their new studio album, ‘Candy Coloured Catastrophe’, and accompanying tour last year. They mixed up their set list with tracks from some of their other albums that did not feature in their previous tour, specifically from the ‘Phaseshifter’ and ‘Researching the Blues’ albums, opening on the former with ‘Huge Wonder’ – aggressive Beatles-like vocals and an extended ending – and the cymbal crashes and howls of ‘Uglier’ of the latter release.
Track staples such as ‘Stay Away from Downtown’ and ‘Lady in the Front Row’ were combined with the newer material, like ‘I’ll Take Your Word for It’, one of the few tracks with Steven Shane McDonald lead singing rather than his brother Jeff McDonald, who changed guitar at this point for the song’s ’60s psychedelic Beatles vibe. After performing their single, ‘Annie’s Gone’, RK, being huge Beatles fans, also threw in a Beatles’ cover track, ‘It Won’t Be Long’, with Jeff on tambourine.
Steven Shane McDonald and drummer Dale Crover then performed again but now as the Melvins along with lead singer and guitarist, Buzz Osborne, the band touring with double drummers (with 2006-2016 Melvins drummer Coady Willis) as they have done before over their history, opening up their set on a synchronised drum duet. This continued throughout the night with stripped back parts allowing for the drums to sonically takeover amongst guitar feedback silences, with both drummers pausing at the end of Melvins and Lustmord cover, ‘The Bloated Pope’, with drumsticks crossed in the air above their heads before plunging into the thunder of ‘Never Say You’re Sorry’ and its guitar pedal effects.
Towards the end of the next song, ‘Evil New War God’, the two drummers took it in turns to play alternated drumming patterns. McDonald sang vocals for the grungy sway and string strangles of ‘A History of Bad Men’ with the band then piling through the spectacular treadmill triplet of Hag Me/Hog Leg/Honey Bucket derived mostly from their commercially successful ‘Houdini’ album: chocking bludgeoning metal without any breaks in between, playing slow and then fast with the choppy ending of ‘Revolve’ from the album ‘Stoner Witch’. They ended another fantastic London show on ‘Houdini’ favourite ‘Night Goat’. The only issue was they were unable to perform their new studio album, ‘Thunderball’, released earlier this year because it was partly a collaboration album.
11/08/25: Melvins + Redd Kross @ Electric Ballroom, London.
Photos © Ayisha Khan.
© Ayisha Khan.