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Meat Puppets’ no-nonsense rock

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by Brett Myers

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

For more than two decades, the Meat Puppets' music has cultivated one of the most influential sounds in alternative music. The most notable of bands they have impacted is Nirvana, who asked brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood to perform three Meat Puppets' songs with them on their classic MTV Unplugged performance.

Shying away from the attention they garnered as a result of Nirvana's cover of "Lake of Fire" as a staple on rock radio, the Meat Puppets have largely remained an underground phenomenon. As a result of bassist Cris' substance abuse problems, the two brothers went their separate ways in 1996 before reuniting a decade later with new drummer Ted Marcus to record the album Rise to Your Knees released this past summer.

It was under this guise that a revitalized Meat Puppets played the High Noon Saloon on Friday in the Kirkwoods' first national tour together in 11 years. The trio took the stage and wasted no time proving that, even though it's been 25 years since the release of their debut album, there are no signs of rust anywhere on the machine known as the Meat Puppets.

Clutching a red Flying V for the evening's first two songs, guitarist Curt did justice to the noble guitar he played as the band updated their old tracks with new soaring solos and psychedelic-tinged jams.

Following a few more well-performed songs, the band found its niche and floored into the crowd-favorite "Up On The Sun." Showing just how proficient a guitarist he was, Curt's playing wowed the audience with his alternate picking styles and varied tones as a result of, among other things, the three wah-wah pedals at his disposal.

Rarely in one place at one time, though, bassist Cris thrashed and head-banged his way through classics from the Meat Puppets' back catalog, including "Plateau," "Lost" and "Look at the Rain." As the night wore on, the band also presented a nice selection of tracks spanning their discography, including "Aurora Borealis" and "Oh, Me" from their 1984 classic Meat Puppets II, and "Severed Goddess Hand" and "Comin' Down" from their gold-certified Too High To Die.

In typical Meat Puppets fashion, Curt plucked a riff out of the air, which the rest of the band picked up and built upon in a moment's jam before they proceeded into a well-received rendition of "Lake of Fire." A stark departure from the slow, pain-soaked version Nirvana made the world familiar with in November 1993, the Meat Puppets' "Lake of Fire" was unhinged, abrasive and painted with feedback and distortion, which one audience member claimed is "how it should sound."

Following a short encore break, the band returned to the stage to put a cap on the evening with a handful of songs including the bouncy "Pee Pee The Sailor" and the closing number, the fantastically underrated "Backwater."

Just as bands like Nirvana did in the '90s, bands of today could stand to learn something from the Meat Puppets' no-nonsense approach to music. From 1982 through today, they have combined traditionally incompatible genres, in their case punk, country and psychedelia and have made it not only sound good, but also make sense. From their remarkable musicianship, to their infinite energy, the Meat Puppets proved Friday night that they will go down as one of rock's true giants, despite the fact that they remain largely unknown to the majority of the listening population.

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Anonymous (November 27, 2007 @ 7:13pm):

hell yeah! good show, good review...hopefully you turned at least a couple folks on! Thanks,

J

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