Tour Update: Melvins

The Melvins are in the midst of their Escape From LA North American Tour. The fall dates kicked off September 3rd at The Casbah in San Diego, California and will wrap up in Los Angeles at The Echo on November 8th. We sat down with Buzz Osborne and Steve McDonald to talk about tour loyalty, tuning and setlist building. Watch our exclusive Tour Update interview with Melvins below:
Tour Update: The Melvins Do As Many Odd Tunings As Possible

Tour Loyalty
Buzz: "There's people that I like. I want it to stay that way. I want to work with them, I want to continue working with them. From booking agents to the clubs. There's clubs out there where we have been planning tours with the same club and the same promoter people for the better part of 30 years."

Steve: "He's really loyal- it's true".
Odd Tunings
Buzz: "We do a lot of odd tunings, I'd say. We do as many odd tunings."
Steve: "More odd tunings than I've done in my life. It was new for me to turn the bass down two steps, three steps."
Buzz: "This time we're only doing three different tunings in a set. We've done as many as six."
Steve: "I like it better when you guys do more weird tunings. This tour was cool there wasn't enough odd tunings."
Buzz: "I have a weird thing too I like to tune my own guitar. I don't like to take it off. Once I start a set, I want to play the same guitar through the whole set. So I do all that myself."
Steve: "Yeah because usually when a band changed tuning they hand it to a guitar tech but instead Melvins will create some kind of mystery, noise, section and everyone's like wow this blowing my mind. And the reality is all that's going on is that Buzz is tuning."
Steve Plays with Melvins and Red Kross
Steve: "On this tour so far we've learned about half the record so like six songs is what we've been planning on. You know, that's a daunting number because I always think about when I go see bands and the new songs are when you go to the bathroom. Except for this record I think is a little better than that."
Buzz: "That's not for you to decide."
Steve: "Yeah that's not for me to decide so you know, you can plan your bathroom trips in advance. Buzz mentioned earlier that both bands are going to play an hour. Even though Red Kross is definitely in the support slot, we're playing a full set."
Buzz: "I would consider it more like a duel headliner."
Steve: "You can consider it anything you want Buzz, but I'm not playing after you. I will play in your band but Red Kross can't play after. You're the headliner. You're the headliner baby, you're the star."
Buzz: "I'm not afraid."


To catch Melvins and Red Kross on their Escape from LA Tour, visit their official website.


Follow Setlist.fm on Instagram and Twitter.
Karma Police - Please Share:

Most played songs

Last updated: 28 Mar 2024, 08:38 Etc/UTC