King Buzzo Entrances Beat Kitchen Crowd

By Casey Moffitt in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 24, 2014 4:00PM

Buzz Osborne blew into Beat Kitchen Saturday where fans saw the Melvins frontman perform unlike they had seem him before—onstage by himself and unplugged.

The sold-out crowd saw a mellower side of Osborne, as he embarked on his acoustic experiment—his first tour as a solo, acoustic performer. Although it was a more easy-listening experience compared to a roaring Melvins show, Osborne still put on an intense performance showcasing some of the skills that receive a little less focus than shown at a typical Melvins set.

The solo act gives Osborne the opportunity to show off just how powerful his voice can be, bellowing the melodies in a way most had not heard him before. He can get very loud and bombastic. His chops were in fine shape for this tour, as he really projected through the hour-long set. He also is quite deft at using dynamics and is range is a bit wider than expected.

Osborne also showed off his skills as a guitar player. He pulled off some dynamite licks on that acoustic guitar and showed just how nimble his left hand can be. Sure, he has tunes like "We Are All Doomed" which are slow and tedious and can try the patience of an audience. But when he launched into "Suicide In Progress" or the closer "Revolve," Osborne's playing was a shining revelation.

Playing a solo acoustic set can expose a lot of warts which are normally covered up by a bombastic rhythm section like Melvins, but Osborne was up for the challenge. He put the crowd into a quiet trance throughout the set. Perhaps people weren't used to seeing or hearing him in such a manner and found it confusing or disorienting. However they responded when a tune ended or he cruised through a particularly nasty run on his fretboard.

It was also unusual to see Osborne engage the crowd the way he did Saturday night. In a typical Melvins show, Osborne says very little on stage and lets the music do the talking. However during his acoustic set, he was talkative, cracking jokes and telling "pointless" stories about how he really "blew it."

He took some nasty jabs at Dave Grohl and Josh Homme in one particular story. Osborne explained he was good friends with Grohl, but they had lost touch for a long time.

"When you reach 200 million copies, I guess the phone only works one way," he said.
Then he recalled how he reconnected with Grohl at a show where they exchanged numbers, but didn't actually talk to him again for a few months when Grohl invited Osborne to check out a Them Crooked Vultures show in Los Angeles.

"I knew he was doing Them Crooked Vultures with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin," Osborne said. "And there were some other people in the band. I just don't really have the time to keep with pop music these days."

The story culminated with Osborne refusing the V.I.P. treatment at the show because he had tickets to a Dodgers game that night.

"I told you it was pointless," he said, "and semi-funny."

Osborne's set included three new songs written specifically for the acoustic guitar, including two on his limited 10-inch release, This Machine Kills Artists, copies of which were sold out for the Chicago show. The third is to be released on a full-length album of acoustic material due to be released in June. Eight songs performed Saturday night were retooled Melvins tunes, and he also threw a cover of Alice Cooper's "The Ballad of Dwight Fry" into the set.

It was a particular set, and maybe a little weird by even Melvins standards. But it was fun to see an artist who has had such a long career like Osborne do something completely different and in a new light.