Melt Banana at Dante’s (12/12)
Well, treacherous winter conditions (freezing rain and fog) kept me from making the 4+ hour roundtrip drive up to Portland to see Melt Banana Lite last night at Dante’s in Portland. I love the band, but Oregon doesn’t know how to handle road maintenance in the winter like Ohio… and cheating death isn’t my optimal trade-off for seeing Melt Banana. Maybe next time they swing through the cards will be in my favor.
The weather all kept my back-up plan from happening, too (the Portland Cello Project canceled their show at Cozmic Pizza in Eugene). Oh well…
Anyone go to MxBx in PDX? How was it?
~Dan – np: Megadeth – Endgame 
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Melt Banana was incredible. I’m glad I finally got the opportunity to see them.
Cool… I’m so bummed I missed it. I hope they swing around again in a couple of years. I know they were here about 2 years ago (right after I moved to town).
I bet it was a pretty energetic show…
~Dan
The first part of their set was just samplers and drums. It was pretty cool, but of course it was nothing compared to the rest of the set with the whole band. Pretty aggressive mosh pit during the whole set, so if you’re into that it was awesome. I really enjoyed the second opening band, but have forgotten their name.
I usually stay out of the pit (I’m gettin’ too old), but I love the great riffin’ time. And, yeah, I imagine a live drummer is better than the drum machine dealio. :)
Dante’s MySpace lists the openers as: Tera Melos & The Slants.
~Dan
I was there. It was pretty awesome. I think this is the 3rd time I’ve seen them. The first times were in Seattle and Bellingham about 2 years ago.
The first part of the set, they did their new Melt Banana Lite thing, which sounded pretty much exactly like their new live album. Then they started with Shield for your Eyes, like always (which I love). They played Bragg after that, and that’s the only song I think they played pre-Cellscape. Then it was a mix of Bambi’s Dilemma, Cell-Scape, and their new Initial T EP. Also, I think there was one new song on there, as I didn’t recognize it. I was surprised, for sure, because I think I pretty much have all their recorded output.
After they were done, they left the stage and made us wait for the encore. Oh wait, no they didn’t. They were off stage for like a minute, which I thought was pretty hilarious, seeings how they are such a fast band. I saw Pixies in Eugene last month and there was like a 15-20 minute gap of everyone yelling their fucking heads off before they came back out for encore. And Pixies did a double-encore, which was kinda funny.
Anyways, if I remember correctly, they ended with Chainshot. It was a really good show, even though I didn’t care much for The Slants. Tera Melos was good, but I think it’s more of a thing you have to be really familiar with their output to get the most from the show. Since I didn’t know any of the songs, it was just moments of coolness mixed in with a bunch of stuff I didn’t understand.
Cool… thanks for the review. It makes me feel like I was there. :)
I hope they swing around again in a year or so…
~Dan
Oh, I just found that song that I thought was new. It’s from the Young Widows/MxBx split from earlier this year. It’s a good one. More mellow than most of their output though.
I thought the show was great also. Arrived toward the end of Tera Melos and totally agree with the previous description. Melt Banana slayed like always, and Agata seemed to have more energy than I remember, sometimes swinging his SG into the air and then shredding it upon return. I loved the MB lite at the start. Wished they had played Teeny Shiny stuff, but I love Cell-Scape so no big deal. Pit was violent but people helped each other out. One dude was throwing a few too many elbows at first but he settled down.
I’m surprised they didn’t have a date in Eugene. They usually stop there. Too bad.
I don’t like the tables and chairs in the middle of the room at Dante’s. You’d think they’d get rid of them for shows like this.
Overall, great time and mind blown.