“Fear is the reason you're going to break down. Your system's infected with hate. Life slowly comes to a halt. The strength in your body begins to dislocate.
Pray you don't see me as you turn the corner. Your nerves are beginning to twitch. You'll be my future organ donor. You're paying a price for me, bitch.”
Back in 2020, the experimental-rock band Mr. Bungle put out their fourth studio album — and first in 21 years — the very well-received The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo. And now that they’re doing a proper tour in support of it, the five-piece returned to NYC to thrill a packed Terminal 5 on Friday night.
(Mr. Bungle play Roadrunner in Boston tonight.)
Photos courtesy of Silvia Saponaro | @Silvia_Saponaro
Mr. Bungle
Roadrunner, Boston, MA
11 September 2023
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After not visiting the Boston area in about twenty years by Mike Patton's onstage estimation, the man of many (many) projects brought Mr. Bungle back to Boston - although perhaps not in the form one might have expected. They play a thrashing, grinding, whirlwind of a set that starts with a detuned rendition of "Also Sprach Zarathustra' playing over the speakers, and doesn't get any less crazy from there. Patton and band first "cover" 'Won't You Be My Neighbor?', and what follows is a set whose focus splits between their thrash-metal Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny (originally recorded in 1986, re-done in 2020), and a wealth of notable and left-field covers including 10cc and Seals & Crofts (the latter with some choice lyrical adaptations), as well as Slayer for a more genre-cohesive choice.
The night seems designed to throw the listener between sonic extremes; one moment the drums and bass are vibrating the foundation of the building, with Patton interjecting every now and again with a whistle or a second mic to twist his elastic voice into further forms; but just as quickly the room can be paused in a gentle lull. But fury is the majority stakeholder here: Patton is energetic and wild, crouched low oscillating back and forth like a fighter or an animal ready to lunge. They're positively carving a path through the set and its many immense and sometimes even operatically-epic moments, highlighting an era of Mr. Bungle's history that predates the band's most fertile period in the nineties, given new life alongside numerous tributes to the band's many influences and contemporaries in the wider field of metal.