Mike Patton & his wacky band of band members graced the country once again for a smattering of his weirdness. This time, both his side projects played at the same venue on the same day; but not at the same time. Some might say "but they're too similar to distinguish." Well, possibly, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a good show.
Impossible to judge though, as the horde of Robbie Williams fanaticals had any and all nearby parking bays chock full to the gunnels, and so some of us missed the Fantomas set; causing great lamentations & cursing and furious beatings of steering wheels. 50,000 of the ugly buggers would also cause havoc on the way out, and, all trying to leave from the one driveway at the same time, which began a log-jam of tooting fools that lasted well over an hour.
Stumbling in one or two songs into the Melvins set it was evident that the Hordern Pavillion is a bad venue. Bags of space for fans, but no room for intimacy. They played for a further 4 minutes before wandering off the stage and making room for Tomahawk, but not before the wacky DJ would spin a few tunes and get pelted with trash by idiots.
This man is no fool; quite the opposite. I'd first spoken to him at the Turbonegro show because he was spinning up some Messer Chups albums. He did the same on this occasion, much to the dismay of the crowd. Take heart, strange DJ - they are ignorant swine.
Tomahawk came on, and played for about an hour. As Belvedere has mentioned to me (on many occasions) "It's the same thing—noise & Patton's voice filtered..." which might not be an accurate quote, but you get the gist. GIST!
That isn't to say it wasn't an amusing show. Some people were bitter because of earlier traffic trouble.Others were there to get drunk, throw bottles and flick their hair in the faces of the bystanders. This is why people are punched in the back by mysterious foes in the pit.
So Tomahawk played for an hour, went off for 5 or 10, and came back for a few more. There was no crowd interaction. The best part was Patton headbutting the bassist in the belly region and stealing his axe. The Bass player then went and did an amusing imitation of a screaming fool on a vocal filter.
Reviewed on Friday, 19 December 2003