The Melvins are, by now, an institution. What this Seattle-based band has been providing since 1983 is monumental, glacial-paced rock noise, classic rock and guitar histrionics played with a punk sense of energy and absurdity. This is the music that a lot of disaffected suburban Kiss fans gravitated toward. It’s theatrical and extreme.
Despite forays into experimental territory, they are more uniformly abrasive than the Meat Puppets, but the Melvins represent a similar syntheses of elements with more of a jagged metal edge. Like the Meat Puppets, the Melvins gained significant national attention from the fact that they were influential on a young Kurt Cobain, who went on to champion the band when he became famous in Nirvana.
The Melvins have more of a silly sense of humor than many of the bands that have embraced their sound in the realms of stoner metal, doom and sludge. That doesn’t reduce the force of their punch, though.
The Melvins play at Ballroom at the Outer Space, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden, Sunday, Aug. 28, at 9 p.m. Tickets are $20. 203-288-6400, thespacect.com.
