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.