When I heard Meat Puppets were going to play the Bishop one thought immediately popped into my head: Will they play "Sam?"
I had to know.
Since the Phoenix band's '82 self-titled hardcore punk debut album, Meat Puppets' catalog has run the gamut, from grunge rock to country western to jam band stuff. Their sounds shaped the birth of a new genre of music, "Cow Punk." In '93 they were guests on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged performance, likely a product of Kurt Cobain's determination to fight the mainstream. They've done a little bit of everything. Point is, you can't pigeonhole Meat Puppets, which is why their show was so much fun.
They opened with "Whistling Song" in which lead singer, guitarist, and founding member Curt Kirkwood does more whistling than anything else. That was pleasant. Then they stirred the crowd into a frenzy with fan favorites like "Touchdown King," "Plateaus," and "Up on the Sun." The last of these morphed into a ferocious noise jam that featured fellow Kirkwood brother, Cris, thrashing about, slapping his bass, and grinning goofily into the audience, drummer Shandon Sahm beating the snot out of his drum heads and Curt firing as many notes into the cacophony as possible.
After a while, the rhythm guitarist and spitting image of his father Curt, Elmo Kirkwood, spoke up. He smelled weed. And a few songs later he was puffin' strong, courtesy of a fan. That was our first impression of the next generation of Kirkwoods.
The band wrapped up their set with a cover of the Beach Boys' classic "Sloop John B" and their own hit, "Lake of Fire." They encored with a ruckus rendition of their most popular song "Backwater." The crowd, myself included, was floored.
And yes, in response to the crowd's incessant chanting, Meat Puppets did play "Sam." On the song the Kirkwood brothers spit out words as fast as, if not faster, than Busta Rhymes on his verse in "Look at Me Now." Flawlessly. That alone was worth the cost of admission.
Post by Kale Okeson
