Review: Mudhoney tear the legendary Horseshoe Tavern apart

by Ciaran Thompson

June 19, 2010

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Last night's NXNE Chunklet Showcase at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern started off a little shaky. The Power went out during Chicago band The Poison Arrows' set. After a brief period of 'what the hell are we supposed to do now,' the bar had stopped serving alcohol, electricity finally returned, the beer fridges opened and the band went back on-stage to finish.

Last night’s NXNE Chunklet Showcase at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern started off a little shaky. The Power went out during Chicago band The Poison Arrows’ set. After a brief period of ‘what the hell are we supposed to do now,’ the bar had stopped serving alcohol, electricity finally returned, the beer fridges opened and the band went back on-stage to finish. After their last song, lead singer Justin Sinkovich added another accomplishment he proudly ticked off his list, playing on the same bill as Mudhoney.

Back in 1984 Mark Arm and Steve Turner, current members of Mudhoney formed a band called Green River that melded heavy metal sounds with punk rock attitude to make what the press would later overuse to classify their sound and many others in Seattle’s upcoming music scene as ‘grunge.’ The band’s stay on the scene was short, only releasing one studio album and after breaking up a few years later two of the other members in the band, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, went on to form Mother Love Bone and later, Pearl Jam. Arm and Turner started Mudhoney and recruited Dan Peters, who once played with Nirvana, on drums and to this day those have been the three core members. Bassist Matt Lukin was replaced by Guy Maddison in 2001.

But before the time warp in the form of one of the most highly revered late ’80s early ’90s acts to emerge from the pacific northwest, the audience was teleported to another planet for Auburn, Alabama’s Man or Astroman? Playing mostly instrumental numbers, the band ripped through their set of fast, loud and don’t forget space-like tracks and wowed the crowd with their on-stage attire and props, which included visuals of vintage sci-fi flicks. At one point frontman Rob Del Bueno emerged wearing a full space suit and set an instrument on fire to put an end to the band’s intergalactic indie rock set.

For anyone planning to go to see Man or Astroman? and Mudhoney back to back be warned, bring earplugs. Upon setting up the band’s gear the Mudhoney roadie tested out a few of the guitar pedals and the sound emanating from the speakers was ferocious, immediately finding your ear drum and pounding the crap out of it.

The Seattle band took the stage just after 2 AM and from the first guitar stroke, tore the legendary venue apart. If it wasn’t their sound that shook the building, it was the crowd as moshing and body surfing was intense to say the least. At one point during the track “Touch Me I’m Sick,” their debut single from 1988, a crowd surfer was lifted so high he managed to grab on to one of the pipes along the ceiling to swing around on showing, in my mind, some impressive acrobatics. The act was replicated a few times more throughout the set while the high energy body throwing below didn’t let up the entire time, making it a nightmare for photographers.

When I mentioned time warp earlier, I meant it. Mudhoney have lost none of their zeal as a genuine punk band with their play hard or don’t play at all attitude. Lead singer Mark Arm opted to go without the guitar for a couple of songs and during those he looked like Iggy Pop’s incarnate. He kind of looks like him a bit anyway, but his snake-like body movements and long stretches into the screaming crowd showed who one of his biggest influences was, not to mention kicking some guy who tried to climb up. The band zipped through a packed set of songs, cutting out the chit-chat and refusing to let the audience breathe. They played numbers off their latest album The Lucky Ones, their eight release from 2008 including “I’m Now” as well as the title track. Older cats looking for some early alternative rock were treated to “Suck You Dry” and “You Got It” among others.

“We’re usually in bed by 9:30 so this is pretty intense,” Arm said after about an hour of songs. Despite sunrise being only a couple hours away, the band carried on and returned after a short break to play three encores. In short if you haven’t before, go and see Mudhoney, preferably in a smaller venue. They are a reminder of how powerful the Seattle music scene developing in the early ’90s was and are absolutely thrilling to see live. No wonder Cobain liked them so much.

Photo by Ciaran Thompson

Tags: Music, Mudhoney, NXNE, The Horseshoe Tavern

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