California duo Sumo Princess consisted of a guy on drums and a woman (the SP?) on bass and vocals. Like the Meat Puppets, these two were no spring chickens. The woman's bass had some distortion pedals that made her sound like a guitarist who played low notes, the definition of bass I guess. The drummer kept a frantic pace and hit the skins with such force that his kit might be "single use". The woman had leopard print pants, a shirt with a ghost emoji, and some misplaced bangles that put forth a scary "don't fuck with me" persona. The vocals vacillated between Julia Child warble and riot grrl snarl.
I had never seen the Meat Puppets back in their heady start in the 80s and 90s. A couple viewings in recent years have made me appreciate their arc and longevity. Arizona-based brothers Kurt and Chris Kirkwood were joined this outing by their original drummer, Chris' son Elmo on rhythm guitar and vocals, and a keyboard player. The sound can best be described as "desert-country-punk-grunge-psych". The brothers must be in their 50s and are gray and grizzled like a couple of grunge Moses's who have witnessed the burning bush. In this case, the burning bush was being pals with and touring with Nirvana ( and a late great Kurt). The songs Plateau and Lake of Fire are firmly etched on Nirvana's Unplugged recording and were highlights on this evening. Their recent recording Dusty Notes, a mixture of country and punk templates were jumping off points for Kurt's almost Hendrixian guitar psych noodlings. The venue was packed to get a glimpse of these truly original artists. I heard a snippet of a 90s interview with Kurt who said" I don' t know man, I just wanna play music and connect people with my imagination".
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