No one can say it’s been easy for Queens-born Melanie Martinez. Between struggling to find friends while growing up and dealing with her sexuality, to ultimately being eliminated from two major music competitions – MSG Varsity Talent Show and The Voice – all the pieces eventually came together around the singer’s perseverance. Selling-out one of the Capital Region’s most active venues is proof.
After being signed to Atlantic Records, Martinez quickly found a fanbase by releasing her ‘Cry Baby’ debut in 2015. At this stage in Martinez’s career, she’s already had two full-length, Gold records, not to mention a handful of Platinum singles. Her latest 2023 release, ‘Portals,’ is on par to become her biggest if streams and viral TikTok videos are any indicator.
Martinez recently embarked on an ambitious 29-city tour that is taking her from Colorado to Montreal in just two months. With 12 billion streams to her credit, it seems there is no ceiling for her growth. Additionally, Martinez has plans to continue the momentum already sparked by her new album hype and recent overseas festival performances, particularly with some well-timed singles. Martinez will perform June 7 as a genderless, magical being she dubs Cry Baby. The persona is at the center of her previous two releases, ‘K-12’ and ‘Cry Baby.’ The show, which is already sold-out, goes down at the Hard Rock Live in Wheatland. Resale tickets may be available at www.ticketmaster.com. The Hard Rock Live is located in Wheatland at 3317 Forty Mile Road.
Never a band to sit idle, the Hammerfall quintet is finishing up its latest U.S. run. For fans who feel like the group’s opening set wasn’t enough, a handful of surprises could be in store for its upcoming Roseville show, including new material from the stellar 2022 release on Nuclear Blast records, ‘Hammer of Dawn.’
Besides celebrating a newer album, Nuclear Blast is also revisiting Hammerfall’s “Crimson Thunder” record from 2002. This 20th anniversary retrospective comes either as a glorious 3-CD box set, or as a 2 LP set in Platinum. It’s a “Crimson Thunder” edition replete with bonus tracks.
Anchored by vocalist Joacim Sans, Hammerfall is rounded-out by bassist Fredrik Larsson and guitarist Oscar Dronjak. Fans agree the trio hasn’t skipped a beat in its multi-decade existence. They currently have a new lyric video for the classic “Riders on the Storm.” Tuning in is a good idea for anyone on the fence about venturing out to the Goldfield Trading Post in Roseville on a lazy Sunday night.
Doors for the show open at 7 p.m. and the action kicks off with local openers, Niviane, at 7:45 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at www.goldfieldtradingpost.com for $25. Goldfield Trading Post is located at 238 Vernon Street in Roseville.
You don’t have to be a classic music afficionado to have heard the sounds of John Williams. His name is synonymous with iconic movie soundtracks, the credits being too numerous to mention. To date, there are more than 100 well-known scores that began in his imagination.
Two upcoming shows at Folsom’s Harris Center for the Arts will serve as a reminder of how influential Williams’ body of work is – and how well it has aged. Expect pieces from Hollywood favorites such as Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, E.T., Star Wars and more.
Concertmaster Anita Fetsch Felix will be the shows’ featured performer during Schindler’s List, as well as in John Williams’ arrangement of Jerry Bock’s Fiddler on the Roof, which includes Mr. Williams’ original violin cadenzas.
The John Williams Spectacular is a limited engagement and plays on two special days – Saturday, June 3 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 4, at 2 p.m. Although tickets are already sold-out, there is always a chance a limited amount of tickets will be released at www.harriscenter.net. The Harris Center is located at 10 College Parkway in Folsom. All ages are welcome.
Led by the ever-so-nasty vocalist Wattie Buchan, this Scottish punk rock four-piece has been firing on all cylinders while trotting across the globe this year. Although The Exploited’s ‘Disorder USA 2023’ tour is a short one – only 11 dates on this side of the Atlantic – one of the stops is in Roseville on May 31.
Music fans who are easily offended, or have a great aversion to heaps of spit coming from both the crowd and stage, may want to dress inappropriately – or hide in the back of the room.
The last time this writer saw the band live was at the now-defunct San Francisco club, The Stone: It was the late 1980s and the show was an absolute zoo from beginning to end. And that had partly to do with lead antagonist Wattie Buchan being on an absolute tear. Political in nature and ferociously outrageous, Buchan and his cohorts-in-crime have an extensive catalog to draw from in their chaotic shows. And while The Exploited’s last proper record was 2003’s aptly titled “Fuck the System,” it’s the probably the 80’s releases that fans will inevitably be clamoring for.
Doors to their show at Goldfield’s Trading post in Roseville open at 7 p.m. before the show kicks off with Southern California openers Total Chaos at 7:45 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at www.goldfieldtradingpost.com for $29.50. Goldfield Trading Post is located at 238 Vernon Street in Roseville. All ages are welcome. “Don’t like the music? Don’t like the words? You can all piss off you’re a bunch of turds!”
For music-lovers who grew up in the region during the late 1980s, chances are they knew of a band from Eureka called Mr. Bungle – a group that garnered a large following through word of mouth and eventually headlined sell-out shows all around California. What separated Mr. Bungle from other funk bands that were crowding the scene was its intelligent arrangements, awkward lyrics and a live, unrivalled energy at the time.
While the band’s line-up has changed from its earliest recordings, its core members – Mike Patton (vocals), Trevor Dunn (bass), and Trey Spruance (guitar) – still comprise the majority of the quintet. Today’s incarnation is rounded out by two well-known heavy metal legends: Drummer Dave Lombardo (Slayer, Fantomas, Dead Cross) and guitarist Scott Ian (Anthrax, Stormtroopers Of Death).
Mr. Bungle released ‘The Raging Wrath of The Easter Bunny Demo” during the pandemic – October 2020 – on boutique label, Ipecac Recordings. It was basically a re-recording and revved-up version of the group’s first demo tape. It included a spirited cover of Corrosion of Conformity’s “Loss for Words,” as well as a Spanish-named version of Stormtroopers Of Death’s “Speak English Or Die.”
SN&R caught up with bassist Trevor Dunn before Mr. Bungle’s upcoming West Coast shows got underway. We wanted to understand the origins of the band and where they are today.
SN&R: Mr. Bungle’s rise to fame in the North Bay seemingly came from the ‘Goddammit I Love America!!!$ɫ!!’ EP, which was sold as a crudely photo-copied demo tape. I saw the band open a bill in Petaluma at the Palace Theatre with Victims Family, fIREHOSE, and The Doughboys, and it seemed much of the draw was your own. What do you attribute to your inevitable frenzy all over California?
Dunn: Back in the day we were fairly involved in the tape trading scene. I still have friends worldwide to this day who I met through snail mail. Honestly, I think the hype started a bit later — more around the ‘OU818’ demo. Either way, ‘Goddammit’ was our first demo recorded in an actual studio, our song writing was starting to mature, and we were taking the band more seriously; trying to get out of town to play shows, find management, etc.
SN&R: What’s the reason Mr. Bungle rarely played songs the same way live? Boredom?
Dunn: We played them a lot the same way live, so at a certain point, mostly in order to keep ourselves entertained, we started messing with the arrangements. There’s a lot you can do to a song to keep it familiar and interesting at the same time.
SN&R: Getting signed out of the gates to Warner Bros. was quite a feat for a band hailing from Eureka. What other labels were interested and what were the terms of the deal? Was the advance quite large given Patton’s status with Faith No More?
Dunn: After being more or less a garage band for several years we started taking the band more seriously – recording ‘OU818’ – and shopping that demo around. In Effect records (whose biggest band at the time was 24-7 Spyz) showed some interest. Their A&R guy actually flew up to Eureka to take us out to lunch. But ultimately, Patton couldn’t leave the Warner family. We, in turn, gave them an ultimatum they couldn’t refuse and ended up on WB proper. If I remember correctly, the contract was a seven-album deal with each one being “on option,” which meant that after each record they would decide if they wanted to pick us up again. It was all a matter of record sales and the potential for us to write some MTV hit which, of course, we knew would never happen. It was a very non-committal relationship, but they took us to dinner and we fucked them, haha. I think they gave us 100k for that first record, most of which we spent in the studio doing what we wanted. With a bit of leftover money we bought some gear.
SN&R: Do you own your Warner Bros. masters? Any plans for special re-issues?
Dunn: At the time, the label didn’t bother us, which was great. We made the records we wanted to make without anyone breathing down our necks trying to tell us how to write a hit. As with most deals of this sort, the label owns the masters although I’m pretty sure we ended up with all of the multi-track tapes ourselves. There are plans.
SN&R: I was present at the first shows at the Fonda Theatre in Southern California, and the band seemed to be having a blast and didn’t adorn any costumes as previous Mr. Bungle shows did. Did you get any feedback from fans wanting the funk/disco years revisited?
Dunn: We are constantly getting that sort of feedback. No one is ever satisfied, which is why we have to focus on satisfying ourselves. And yes, we were having a blast!
SN&R: What places had the most voracious fans during your recent touring cycles?
Dunn: Chile is notorious for its Beatlemania style support. I feel that in the states it varies from town to town, but smaller towns are often the most hungry. I can relate coming from a small town myself. Of course, we have mostly focused on bigger cities in the last couple years as we are old and get tired very easily.
SN&R: How many times does the band rehearse for a tour and where given how members all live in different zip-codes and states in some instances? How did you go about song selection including Mr. Bungle material and covers?
Dunn: Rehearsing depends on how recent our last tour was. We were just in South America in December so for this next run of shows we booked a whopping two days of rehearsal. Everyone is feeling good about the material being under our fingers. As always, Mr. Bungle has never been “Patton’s other band” or however the media spins it. It has always been a collective but the ideas in the band, covers or otherwise, come from all the individuals involved.
Mr. Bungle. Photograph by Buzz Osborne
SN&R: Will we ever see Trio-Convulsant live anytime soon? How many shows did that configuration play and where? Anymore music left to record?
Dunn: In October of 2022, I released the third Trio-Convulsant recording on Pyroclastic Records. It’s called ‘Séances’ and is configured by the trio expanded with a quartet. We did a record release show that month in NYC. I’m currently working on more new music for that line-up and hope to be more active with it next year. The previous configuration as simply a trio toured quite extensively in the U.S. at least in respect to bands that play that type of music. We opened for Fantômas and (the) Melvins back in 2004/2005. We played a handful of one-off gigs after that but it took me a long time to figure out where I wanted to take the idea of new music with that band.’
SN&R: The upcoming U.S. show schedule is very limited. Now that drummer Dave Lombardo has left Testament, Anthrax is on hold due to Charlie Benante’s Pantera involvement, and Mike Patton has no Faith No More plans, do you see more being added in 2023 and 2024?
Dunn: We recently announced another short run on the East Coast in September of this year. There’s a chance we’ll go to Europe next year, but it remains to be seen. We are taking things slowly and aren’t really interested in being in a bus for more than a couple weeks at a time. Everyone in the band has a particular schedule to work around, and for Bungle, that has always been the case, and totally fine.
SN&R: Will you ever re-issue ‘Goddammit I Love America!!!$ɫ!!’ and ‘OU818’ and revisit these songs live or is ‘The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny’ pretty much it for demos?
Dunn: I can’t imagine ever re-issuing those other old demos or re-recording any of those songs. We moved on from that music in the early ‘90s. ‘The Raging Wrath…’ is a different story in terms of the band’s history which is why we felt the need to revisit it. Any of the songs from “Goddammit’ or ‘OU818’ that we felt strongly about ended up on our first WB record so that has all been played out.
Mr. Bungle plays two nights – May 23rd (sold out) and 24th – at the Fox Theater located at 1807 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. Doors open at 7pm and show starts at 8pm. All ages are welcome. Support comes from (the) Melvins and Spotlight. Tickets start at $55 and top out at $135 for Platinum.
Fans of Necrot may remember the band played at Harlow’s back in 2019 with gore merchants, Exhumed, and Sonoran death metal cretins, Gatecreeper. Now, fans of early Grave, Sinister, Blood Incantation and even Immolation will appreciate Necrot’s latest album, “Mortal,” which was dropped during the beginnings of the pandemic in August 2020. The trio’s upcoming show at Café Colonial will continue to support that release.
If live video of their semi-recent East Bay show supporting death metal legends Possessed is any indication, Sacramento is in for a real treat. Necrot is comprised of bassist/vocalist Luca Indrio (Vastum, ex-Acephalix), drummer Chad Galley (Mortuous, Vastum) and guitarist Sonny Reinhardt (Saviours, Watch Them Die, Vorlust). Unlike some death metal acts with their configuration, Necrot produces a massive wall of sound and some of the most-nauseating, extreme arrangements around.
Rounding out this heavier-than-should-be-allowed bill is Mortiferum, Deathgrave and Abhorrency. Tickets can be purchased online (while they last) for $20. Cafe Colonial is located at 3520 Stockton Blvd. All ages are welcome. Demons will die hard.
Eddie
Hammerfall. Photograph by Tallee Savage
Mr. Bungle. Photograph by Buzz Osborne
Courtesy photo