Live Review: Melvins, the Love Junkies, The Devil Rides Out

Stoner rock, whether a terrible name for a genre or utterly brilliant, has never really taken the Perth music scene by storm. So, with a long-awaited headline show from US pioneers Melvins bringing their own fans out of the woodwork, it was a refreshing sight to see Perth's The Devil Rides Out kick things off to such an appreciative crowd. Leaning more towards the Sabbath side of rock'n'roll, frontman Joe Kapiteyn's gutteral roar had everyone's attention from the get-go and the crowd cheered them on the whole way.
The Love Junkies followed as the crowd started to fill out a little more, blasting through a set that showed off their knack for penning a good tune, with a clear influence of Queens Of The Stone Age and a little bit of Blur thrown in for good measure. The now packed house – as well as the Melvins' Buzz Obsorne seen up on the balcony – lapped up every minute of it.
Finally, just as everyone started to get their hearing back, out walked the Melvins. Kicking off with Hag Me from 2006's Stoned Meadow Of Doom, Melvins, complete with two drummers, treated their hardcore fans to over 90 minutes of a brutally loud and heavy material from 1994's Stoner Witch through to 2013's Tres Cabrones. There's a sick sense of humour at the root of the otherwise doom-ridden, sludge-heavy sound they've influenced so many with, sort of like that older kid at the party who packs you your first cone, gets real dark and serious for a minute then cracks a smile and says, 'I'm just fucking with ya, kid!'. Without a moment's rest, by the end of it you felt like everything had descended into utter madness with Lysol's extended trip-out section winding down the set, before a final dual-drum solo came out of nowhere and damn near knocked us off our feet, in the best possible way.