{"id":3980,"date":"2014-06-12T12:03:59","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T19:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/?p=3980"},"modified":"2014-06-12T12:05:37","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T19:05:37","slug":"king-buzzo-rocks-the-echo-with-solo-acoustic-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/2014\/06\/12\/king-buzzo-rocks-the-echo-with-solo-acoustic-set\/","title":{"rendered":"King Buzzo Rocks The Echo With Solo Acoustic Set"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review & photos by Andrew Bansal<\/strong><\/p>\n

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June 11th 2014, The Echo, Los Angeles CA: <\/strong>On the strength of a prolific career spanning over three decades, Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne has gone solo, and acoustic, under the moniker King Buzzo. Buzz made his live performance debut at a Scion-sponsored show at the Satellite in February and did a short US run in March, along with an appearance at the Scion Rock Fest in Pomona in May, as a buildup to the release of the King Buzzo debut album ‘This Machine Kills Artists’, which was released on June 3rd by Ipecac Recordings. And now, he has embarked on an extensive US run to play these new tunes and an assortment of Melvins covers and other goodies. He visited the Echo last night on the second night of this tour, and held the audience captive with a truly fantastic performance.<\/p>\n

Doors opened at 8 PM, and as time went by, the number of attendees at the Echo and the excitement level amongst them kept rising, and promptly at 10:30, Buzz made a low-key entrance onto the stage amidst huge cheers. He made a purposeful start to the set with a cover of Melvins’ ‘Boris’, an apt choice for the opening tune as it garnered the audience’s complete, undivided attention. As Buzz moved around and used the whole stage while playing his guitar, going from light strumming to loud, hard-hitting segments, everyone stood in silence and absorbed every ounce of it, so much so that a pin-drop could have been clearly heard. With ‘Boris’, Buzz set the tone perfectly for a brilliant set to follow.<\/p>\n

Next up, he did a cover of Alice Cooper’s ‘Ballad Of Dwight Fry’. I witnessed him play it at the Satellite and now after having seen him do it on two occasions, I’d have to say his rendition of that song is fast becoming my favorite Alice Cooper cover by anyone, as Buzz captures the essence of the song and delivers it with unmatchable passion and expression. He then went on to present some material from the debut solo album and a couple more Melvins covers, including ‘We Are Doomed’ from the 2012 EP ‘The Bulls & The Bees’, which Buzz described as one of his favorite Melvins tunes of all time, and it showed in the way he performed it, probably the highlight of the entire set.<\/p>\n

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Of course, no Buzz show would be complete without a funny story or anecdote, and this time he told us a Mike Patton-related story which had the audience in absolute splits. He addressed the crowd a couple other times during the set but kept the talking to a sufficient and appropriate amount, which in itself must be a challenge for a man like him whose memory is filled to the brim with countless stories that his fans would be more than glad to hear.<\/p>\n

The incredible attentiveness of the audience during the set was a true testament to the sheer power of Buzz’s performance. Never have I witnessed a solitary musician with a mere acoustic guitar enthrall an audience in this manner, and even in comparison to the gig at the Satellite, Buzz appears to have taken his show to a whole another level. His presentation of great new solo material and barebones renditions of Melvins covers, it has to be said, is right up there with the finest live performances I’ve had the fortune of experiencing this year so far, and it was the kind of show that would make anyone and everyone in the audience forget about their day-to-day miseries and put a genuine smile on the face. If you happen to reside in any of the 40 cities he’s taking the remainder of his tour to, do not miss the chance to be a part of the King Buzzo experience.<\/p>\n

Check out a full gallery of King Buzzo photos from the show below, or view it here<\/a> if you’re on a non-Flash device:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

King Buzzo\/Melvins links:<\/strong>
\nMelvins.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nfacebook.com\/MelvinsArmy<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>
\ntwitter.com\/MelvinsDotCom<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Remaining Tour Dates:<\/strong>
\n06\/12 Santa Ana, CA \u2013 The Observatory
\n06\/13 Fresno, CA \u2013 Strummer\u2019s
\n06\/14 Sacramento, CA \u2013 Assembly
\n06\/15 San Francisco, CA \u2013 Great American Music Hall
\n06\/17 Eugene, OR \u2013 Wow Hall
\n06\/18 Portland, OR \u2013 Hawthorne Theatre
\n06\/20 Seattle, WA \u2013 Neumo\u2019s
\n06\/21 Bellingham, WA \u2013 The Shakedown
\n06\/22 Spokane, WA \u2013 The Hop
\n06\/23 Missoula, MT \u2013 The Palace
\n06\/24 Billings, MT \u2013 The Railyard
\n06\/26 Fargo, ND \u2013 The Aquarium
\n06\/27 Minneapolis, MN \u2013 Grumpy\u2019s
\n06\/28 Milwaukee, WI \u2013 Shank Hall
\n06\/30 Grand Rapids, MI \u2013 The Pyramid Scheme
\n07\/01 Columbus, OH \u2013 A&R Music Bar
\n07\/02 Detroit, MI \u2013 Small\u2019s
\n07\/03 Cleveland, OH \u2013 The Grog Shop
\n07\/05 Syracuse, NY – The Westcott Theater
\n07\/06 South Burlington, VT \u2013 Higher Ground
\n07\/07 Portland, ME \u2013 Portland City Music Hall
\n07\/09 Dover, NH – Dover Brickhouse
\n07\/10 Allston, MA \u2013 Brighton Music Hall
\n07\/11 Pawtucket, RI – The Met
\n07\/12 Hamden, CT \u2013 The Ballroom at The Outerspace
\n07\/13 New York, NY \u2013 Santos Party House
\n07\/14 Brooklyn, NY \u2013 The Wick
\n07\/15 Philadelphia, PA \u2013 Underground Arts
\n07\/17 Baltimore, MD \u2013 Ottobar
\n07\/18 Charlottesville, VA \u2013 The Southern
\n07\/19 Charlotte, NC – Visulite Theater
\n07\/20 Carrboro, NC \u2013 Cat\u2019s Cradle
\n07\/22 Atlanta, GA \u2013 The Basement
\n07\/23 Birmingham, AL \u2013 The Bottle Tree
\n07\/25 New Orleans, LA \u2013 One Eyed Jack\u2019s
\n07\/26 Houston, TX \u2013 Warehouse Live
\n07\/27 Austin, TX \u2013 Red 7
\n07\/28 Sam Antonio, TX \u2013 Limelight
\n07\/30 Tucson, AZ \u2013 Club Congress
\n07\/31 Pioneertown, CA \u2013 Pappy and Harriet\u2019s<\/p>\n

The Echo links:<\/strong>
\nTheEcho.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nfacebook.com\/EchoLA<\/a><\/strong>
\ntwitter.com\/TheEchoLA<\/a><\/strong>
\ninstagram.com\/TheEchoLA<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review & photos by Andrew Bansal June 11th 2014, The Echo, Los Angeles CA: On the strength of a prolific career spanning over three decades, Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne has gone solo, and acoustic, under the moniker King Buzzo. Buzz made his live performance debut at a Scion-sponsored show at the Satellite in February and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “King Buzzo Rocks The Echo With Solo Acoustic Set”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3980"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3980"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3985,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3980\/revisions\/3985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}