Photos and Text by Robert Hanna
To celebrate the reissue of their iconic (and long out of print) 1891 album, A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die, LA’s ’77 proto-punks THE FLESH EATERS embarked on a short five-city tour of the West Coast last week, descending upon Seattle with garage/grunge enthusiasts MUDHONEY providing main support. Singer/poet Chris Dejardins, while the only original Flesh Eater in over 30 years of various lineup changes and incarnations, gathered the entire original lineup from A Minute to Pray, including X’s John Doe on bass and DJ Bonebrake on the marimbas, Blasters guitarist Dave Alvin and drummer Bill Bateman, and sax slayer Steve Berlin. Completely packing the house in Neumo’s in Seattle, The Flesh Eaters were remarkably tight and sounded exactly like their recordings live. While primarily playing material from A Minute to Pray, the group delved into some later (and also quite excellent) material, as well as even covering Gun Club’s “She’s Like Heroin to Me” and “Cinderella” by Tacoma garage pioneers The Sonics.
Mudhoney, who have seldom strayed from their long standing formula of fuzzed-out psych rock since their inception in 1988, played a solid set featuring several tracks from 2013’s Vanishing Point LP (whilst also casually avoiding their obvious radio hits that one would expect). Halfway through the set, singer Mark Arm ditched the dual guitar melodies for some fairly energetic stage moves.
Mudhoney
The Flesh Eaters
