I drove 12 hours to see the Meat Puppets play in Arcata

Mon, 06/20/2011 - 18:41 — Staff

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Chris Durant, staff

I got up at 5:30 a.m. the morning of June 18 and welcomed the morning sun over the Humboldt Hills. For I was about leave my Arcata home for a 12-hour drive to see the Meat Puppets play in, well, Arcata.

I made arrangements to pick up my daughter in Sacramento a few weeks previous, which was supposed to be a casual 5 and a half hour trip, hang out with family and come home early Sunday.

But when I learned the Meat Puppets were playing at Humbrews that same night, well, I knew it was going to have to be a turn and burn mission.

I arrived back in Humboldt around 7:30 p.m., just enough time to let the road shivers die down and get ready for a show.

Last Time I saw them was a few years back at Slims in SF and I swear the alcohol content in the PBR there was about 200 percent higher than normal, by the third song I was blitzed.

Saturday, however, I paced it perfectly and witnessed more than an hour and a half from one of them most underrated, legendary bands in the modern era.

The brothers Kirkwood played hits that spanned their catalog to a full house. And that crowed consisted of older rockers who, according to one I talked to never go to shows anymore but couldn't miss this one, and the younger dub-step crowd. And I'm not trying to be all "Get Off My Lawn" here, but common young ones, would it kill you to say excuse me or sorry when you bump into someone? Rude, really, and every time it was some LRG-wearing drunk dumb-ass.

Anyway, I saw crowd surfing for the first time since Lollapalooza '94, a pit erupted during "Lake of Fire," and the music just kept coming.

I think one yeller in the crowd, among the others who were suggesting hits for the band to play, summed it up best: "Play whatever you want motherfuckers!"

Thanks for coming to Humboldt Meat Puppets.

Comments

Reward We played for you and

Mon, 06/20/2011 - 18:55 — Anonymous

Reward

We played for you and you did not dance
we wailed and you did not listen
and John came neither eating nor drinking
and you said he is possessed by a demon
the son of man came eating and drinking
and you said he is a friend of tax collectors
but what can I say about you?
You are like children in the marketplace
Shouting to your playmates

[
he who receives a prophet because he is a
prophet will receive the prophets reward
he who receives a righteous man because he is a
righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward
(a year's subscription to Superman Comics)

(lyrics by THE DRUMMER)

I am waiting for the day that the world will fully realize the first Meat Puppets record as their best... they are so down on it that even the M.P. seem to feel weird about playing stuff off it....

Still bathing

Mon, 06/20/2011 - 20:11 — Anonymous

The Meat Puppets were great! The smelly asses in the crowd that nearly made me vomit from the odor--not so much.

Is it really too much to ask, that if you're going to be a hot, tight room full of people dancing and moshing, to make sure you've bathed this month?

Hear, hear!

Mon, 06/20/2011 - 21:23 — Staff

Or is it here, here? Either way I agree. - Durant

Loin Ventriliquist

Sat, 06/25/2011 - 12:19 — Anonymous

The madness that erupted over the span of drunken hollering was jovial to say the least. One girl after the show said, "it was like a rock and roll hoe down." The sound was immpecible and the crowd quite feral. I was pulled by the back of my roots and they held on like some twisted mariounette till I screamed wild eyed and red faced;

"Who was it?"

I got the interview back stage and it was something along the lines of, "Ohh bro Too high to Die is my faviriot album." "Thanks." (shook kurts hand) Then the drummer took out a thompson rifle with a 12 inch bowie knife protruding keen from the end and said, "Hey scram kid, Kurts trying to eat his sangwhich see, dont need you around here, beat it see."

By the time I reliezed that the release of the conceptual armour and fangs where seen, it was far too late. I talked to the Savage Henry crew who flashed press badges and swapped stories of late night run ins with Arcata transiets and blown trannies.

In the midst of the entire thing some one was throwing up into a small red cup and trying to pass it off as some pilsner; she made her money back but in the worst way possible. I shook the cops off and dusted shoulders and rubbed elbows with a young girl who told me she had the biggest flag I would ever see, then she continued to say, "Are they gunna play rape me?" That caught the attention of some beardo and a drunken bum who took off into an alley and played doctor with a garbage can anda broken magnifying glass.

I finished the weak night with strong whiskey and rolled cigarettes.