I saw Mudhoney, Clawhammer, and Cheater Slicks at the WUST Radio Music Hall in DC. Mudhoney were pretty good, but I thought the evening belonged to Clawhammer, particularly the guitarist/vocalist, who showed himself to be a person of many talents.
The first opening band, Cheater Slicks, were pretty good. They had a great drummer that sang and two regular guitar players without a bass player. The drummer for Cheater Slicks turned out to be the guitarist and vocalist for Clawhammer (as far as my eyes could recognise). The guitar work of said person was also excellent, as was his voice---it is quite unique. He also played the harmonica for one of the songs. He later went on to play (read: make Noise with) the Saxophone along with Mudhoney for one song. Since Mudhoney have always been major fans of the Stooges, and since they have a 1969-ripoff song on My Brother the Cow called 1995, they decided to add a noisy saxophone ala L.A. Blues on the Stooges fine second LP Funhouse (JS/AW). Clawhammer were extremely good and, live, their music resembled heavy metal more than anything else.
Mudhoney played a lot of stuff off of My Brother the Cow, which I didn't recognise since I don't own the album---yet. The crowd, however, did, and were able to get into the new songs a lot more than I. From all accounts, the Mudhoney sound is clearly evident in the new album also. I've always considered them a lot more talented musically than most of their grunge successors and while this is clearly evident in their studio releases, it is also present in the live show. They were tight and the guitar work, particularly the solos in Make it Now, was excellent. They've managed to put a lot of catchy and melodious pieces while retaining the murkiness that so characterises the grunge genre.
This was the first time I had been to the WUST Radio Music Hall and I thought it provided a close-up cozy atomosphere. The crowd were mostly in their early teens. It's nice to know that young people today are exhibiting good taste in music.
Songs they played from Piece of Cake included No End in Sight, Make it Now, Suck You Dry, and Blinding Sun. The one other song I recognised was Touch Me I'm Sick. The encore, which consisted of "an awesome cover of the Dick's Hate the Police", was prefixed by vocalist Mark Arm going "it's all about show business." Check them out if they come your way.
Thanks to Jake Starr/ADAM WEST (jyas@loc.gov) for filling in details in this review.