The Melvins – Brixton Electric, London 19/05/13

The Melvins shlop over to London on what seems like at least an annual basis these days, but to their credit they ensure that those who greet them never get the same gig twice. Other than core members Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover, who counts as a Melvin remains in a state of flux, and the band remain as likely to soundtrack art house films or play an hour long drone as they are to dip their toes in to their bafflingly large back catalogue. Unpredictability is however in itself only a semi-laudable quality – it’s the fact that I’ve never seen a bad Melvins gig (this is my tenth, and yes, I would like a medal) that makes their impulsive approach to performing live all the more impressive.

This weekend at least, the band consist of Osborne on guitar and Crover on drums (as ever), but also Jared Warren and Cody Willis of Big Business on bass and drums respectively. The idea of them slipping in to this line up and performing albums from their back catalogue in full isn’t without precedent (Houdini got its own tour in 2005, and this incarnation of the band first reared its head in 2006), but it does come at a curious time.

In the past year, the Melvins have released albums with two different line ups (Freak Puke as Melvins-Lite with Trevor Dunn on double bass, and this year’s covers LP Everybody Loves Sausages with tonight’s crew), embarked on a record breaking tour of the ‘States, and released a continual slew of new music on seven inches (I stopped counting after the billionth). None of the records they’re performing tonight or tomorrow (which sees Bullhead and Stoner Witch rolled out) are celebrating landmark anniversaries, other than Houdini, which they toured just a few years ago. It seems strange that a band in the middle of such a prolific streak should choose to turn its gaze backwards at this stage, but hey, it’s the Melvins; strange is their normal.

Of course, they don’t come on and bash through the albums from front to back like you might have expected. In actuality, they start this evening with the rarely-if-ever performed ‘Charmicarmicat’ from 1991’s Eggnog, an EP they end up playing in its entirety despite it being unbilled. That record, along with Lysol, makes up the first half of tonight’s set, a collection of the slow, imposing heaviness that first got terms like ‘stoner’ and ‘sludge’ applied to the band in their infancy. Unsurprisingly perhaps given that they’re performing the songs with double the amount of drummers who feature on the records, their incarnations tonight are in places significantly faster, adding a thrilling urgency but perhaps losing some of the subtleties that have them marked out by diehard fans as true favourites.

After a short break (and a rare few words to the crowd from Warren asking us not to throw bottles on stage, but instead to “recycle!”) they return for Houdini, arguably still the album most likely to be owned by people who only own one Melvins album. Though they mess with the track listing again (starting with an abridged version of the penultimate ‘Pearl Bomb’), it seems like all part of the fun of an album that is basically just one ball of fun. Even though the pair who’ve been in the band twenty three years less than its founders must still have played ‘Hooch’ a zillion times, it still scares and excites me tonight as much as when I first heard it, back when I thought ‘Blind’ was not a Kiss cover but a Melvins original, which tonight’s impassioned version still makes it sound like.

By the time the twelve minute double drum onslaught of an astonishing ‘Spread Eagle Beagle’ has stopped ringing in my ears, the fact that the band only ever made two more records for a major label seems less like a missed opportunity, and more like something to celebrate. Though riffs to which to bang one’s head and choruses to bellow along with are formidable weapons in the Melvins’ arsenal, this is a band who thrive greatest when allowed to do whatever they want. Be thankful they’re still doing just that, whatever it might be.