Mr. Bungle / Spotlights @ The Ritz, Manchester, 13th June 2024

You could sense the buzz around The Ritz when you walked in. With traffic being a bit crazy with other gigs happening across Manchester, the venue didn’t feel that busy as we went in, but those inside knew they were about to witness something special.

Mr. Bungle gigs don’t come along that often, and like most in the crowd I suspect, I hadn’t seen them live before. Some thirty-five years after first listening to them, I finally get to see Mike Patton, Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn live, with the bonus of Anthrax’s Scott Ian, and my favourite drummer, the legend that is Dave Lombardo.

As the room started to fill, New York’s Spotlights hit the stage, drowned in a swathe of blue hazy lighting, the trio emerged and began their set. I wasn’t overly familiar with them, and they play music that is best suited late at night with the lights down low. Seismic is unleashed and it rumbles along with the red lighting adding to the dreamy pleasantness, but it’s music with an edge.

The Alchemist was a mightily impressive song, with that pulsating beat that pierces right through, feeling like your heartbeat. It was slow yet powerful, got heavier and heavier, and genuinely impressed me. The heavier sound really suits them, they look at ease on the stage and when the drum intro for False Gods begins, they explode again with bass groans and melodic harmonies. They manage to combine tense bass lines and head nodding drumbeats, with added distortion on hypnotic hooks, enabling their music to effortlessly flow.

As they approach the end of their fifty-minute set, they thank the crowd for coming out to watch them saying that they ‘appreciate your support’ and despite the guitar of Mario Quintero ‘going off a bit there’ they will have won over a lot of the crowd with their atmospheric music, suitably aided by excellent mood lighting.

But tonight was only ever going to be about one band. And with the venue filling up, the excitement levels tip over when the sound guy checks Mike Patton’s box of electronic tricks positioned front and centre, and with a trumpeted fanfare, the quintet appear opening with Won’t You Be My Neigbour, one of many cover versions they played.

Playing most songs off The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo, they rip through Grizzly Adams, the mental Anarchy Up Your Ass and the more bonkers Bungle Grind with Trey Spruance tearing up the guitar sound, assisted greatly by Scott Ian. You can hear the Anthrax-esque riffs throughout the Easter Bunny… songs as Ian just does what he does best.

‘How you doing tonight Manchester? Are you liking it so far’ asks a clearly excited Mike Patton, which is met with appreciative applause, ‘shouldn’t you all be at home watching Corrie’ said in his best Manc accent, ‘I know I would be’ laughing as they ease their way into 10cc’s I’m Not in Love which is one of the many ‘audio enemas this evening’ acclaims Patton as the usual lights from phones and some old fashioned lighters get held aloft from the crowd.

With the spoken words of Big Boys Don’t Cry, and Patton taunting a few in the front row, Eracist gets the crowd singing, moving and jumping about and after placing his microphone into one of the Lombardo’s bass drums, Spreading The Thighs Of Death kicks off just as Napalm Death’s Shane Embury and John Cooke walk past me.

Before their blistering cover of Cro-Mags Malfunction Patton asks, ‘so fill me in Manchester, what happened in that FA Cup Final huh? Reds? Blues?’ which is met with a mixture of boos and cheers before Ian quips in ‘who doesn’t care what happened?’ which is met with audibly louder applause. Hypocrites / Habla Español O Muere is shredded and is one of the highlights of the set for me, followed by the insanely quick Glutton For Punishment which sees crowd surfers for the first time.

Then, they slow it right down with John Farrar’s Hopelessly Devoted To You made famous by Olivia Newton John in Grease, just before they up the pace somewhat, playing the first few minutes of Slayer’s Hell Awaits and what a joy it was to hear this being played and watch the incredible Dave Lombardo in his element. There’s no-one better than him in my eyes, he’s proved to be so versatile over the years and this made the performance even sweeter for me. The band topped it off with The Isley Brothers, by way of Type O Negative, Summer Breeze, oh to be in those band meetings when they decide what to play and where.

After the awesome Raping My Mind with Patton prowling the stage, we are party to the new gameshow that is sweeping the nation Dad Jokes. With Patton as the host, each band member told their worst dad joke and we got to decide the winner. It was great to see Trevor Dunn finally emerge from his darkened corner, even if his and Ian’s jokes were truly dreadful, with breakfast sausage maker Lombardo and hermit lumberjack Spruance getting equal applause before Patton announces the latter as the winner. And the prize, a blow job from the host. (The jokes were truly awful, so awful, that I can’t remember them!).

With the end in sight, they ripped through the only ‘old’ song of the night, the wonderful My Ass In On Fire which was just mad from start to finish, then Circle Jerks‘ World Up My Ass and Sudden Death before leaving the stage to huge applause.

The crowd starts chanting, ‘we want more, we want more’ and they promptly return with a raucous cover of Sepultura’s Territory pausing only for a story about Mike on the London Eye, being beamed up by aliens, which explains his hairstyle and finally the Eric Carmen song All By Myself which has the words changed for the finale to Go Fuck Yourself which ended an utterly bonkers and utterly brilliant night with Mr. Bungle.

Mr. Bungle

Spotlights

Scribed by: Matthew Williams
Photos by: Lee Edwards