By DJ Astrocreep
Another Manchester evening where there’s a veritable feast of gig choices. With both Foo Fighters and a Smashing Pumpkins/Weezer double bill vying for attention, plus the small matter of Download festival, there was a slight worry about how busy it would be for Mike Patton and co. As it turns out, there needn’t have been any worry whatsoever, as the place is busy by the time our single support for the evening take their place on stage.
Spotlights come out to a level of interest from an already burgeoning crowd and quickly start to throw down some drone/Deftones combination. It’s a very palatable sound, with the soft vocals working well in a similar manner to British act Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and the crowd take to them warmly. The band are tight, moving quickly from one song to another to maximize their impact time and doing a damn good job of it in the process. They are an absolute wall of noise and it works so well in warming us all up for the fun to come. They get 40 minutes to impress, which they do with aplomb, undoubtedly gaining a number of new fans in the process and it’s easy to see how they caught the attention of Ipecac to get signed up.
My first time seeing Mr Bungle, as a huge Mike Patton fan boy, has been a long time coming. While I’ve seen him with Peeping Tom and four times with Faith No More, there was little that could have prepared me for the chaos that was about to unfold. Patton is at time a peculiar figure, but his level of musical expression, not even withstanding his renowned vocal abilities, in such a variety is something that will always have massive personal appeal.
The fanboy warning aside, it was time for the original Mr Bungle trio to take to the stage, joined by Anthrax mainstay Scott Ian and Slayer founder Dave Lombardo – quite the heavy mix and just perfect for some crossover thrash style music.
The band are on absolute fire, smashing through everything and Patton is as endearing as ever when he takes a second between songs to speak with us all as the guitars retune. It’s clear that they’re a good way through the tour with just how precise and tight the entire band are together, though watching Scott Ian have to stop himself from going for it while playing some of the slower covers is quite funny – thrash is so engrained in his playing that it seems that he is in pain and unsure about how to play them!
Patton is known for his versatility when it comes to covering songs and the fact there are nine covers in the 19 song set is no surprise whatsoever, though the choice of some may be more of a surprise for some people. While Cro-Mags, Slayer and Circle Jerks may be a fairly easy thought, 10CC, Grease’s ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’ and ‘Summer Breeze’ are maybe a little less so, but show the sheer versatility of both Patton and the talented band around him, more than adequately topped up to a five piece.
An added extra surprise is when Patton decides that the band are going to have a dad joke competition, which Trey Spruance rightly wins and it’s a testament to the band and their stage presence that they can do something like this and it’s taken in the absolute good humour that they deliver it in.
The main set ends with a top triple threat in ‘My Ass Is On Fire’, a Circle Jerks cover and, quite appropriately, ‘Sudden Death’. We have time for two more covers as an encore, starting with Sepultura’s ‘Territory’ before Patton regales us with a tale of meeting aliens the night before, who gave him a task to pass on a message. Being who he is, he of course delivers a perfect rendition of Eric Carmen’s ‘All By Myself’, though with a slight amendment to the words… after all, it is for more a Mr Bungle message to tell you to ‘Go Fuck Yourself’!
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