Live Review: King Buzzo, Blackie

While best known for his work in incomparable Sydney legends Hard-Ons, Peter Blackie Black has also carved out a role as a charming solo act, and it was in this form he took to the small stage at the Social Club. Unaccompanied and armed only with an acoustic guitar, the uninformed would be easily surprised at the tenderness and genuine folk stylings of the man whose vocals are more recognisable behind distorted chords and fuzz. For all his punk rock chops, Blackie simply cannot hide his ironic charm and clever songwriting – how can you not enjoy a man who dedicates a song to his day job as a cab driver with the lyric “every night is the worst night ever”?

Even better known for his voice behind layers and layers of fuzz is King Buzzo. The legacy of the Melvins is virtually untouchable as landmark masters of the doom, drone and sludge-metal sounds, so an acoustic album and tour for their frontman is surely one of 2014’s more widely thrown curveballs. Yet somehow, Buzz manages to pull it off. Opening with a thundering acoustic version of Melvins classic Boris, Buzz proceeded to stalk the stage and play a dark, twisted version of Americana – as heavy metal as folk could ever be. A handful of Melvins covers sated the crowd’s desire for more well known material, but tunes from his recently released This Machine Kills Artists sounded just as terrific. After some three decades of Melvins drone-rock, you could be forgiven for thinking that Buzz had shown off all the tricks up his sleeve, but as this project shows, there’s fire in the man yet