Live Review: King Dunn - Manchester : The Razor's Edge

Live Review: King Dunn - Deaf Institute, Manchester
6th October 2024
Support: Ni Maitres
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Martin Hingley

Manchester’s Deaf Institute might not be the city’s biggest or even the most prestigious venue, but its ability to host some of the most interesting musical evenings is unparalleled. Among others, I’ve seen Author & Punisher, AA Williams and the Jo Quail/ Jon Gomm tours on the small stage in the upstairs room and you can be guaranteed something a little different from the norm.

This evening finds King Dunn making a stop in town on their October European trek. Composed of Melvins’ frontman, ‘King’ Buzz Osbourne and Mr Bungle bassist, Trevor Dunn. The pair have a history of working together in bands like Fantômas and on Melvins’ 2012 album Freak Puke, before collaborating on this project.

Without fanfare the door to the backstage area opens and Buzz, followed by Trevor carrying his stand-up bass, enter the room and climb the short set of steps to the stage. The show is stripped back to the extreme and it takes but a few seconds for the artists to plug in and begin.

The opening duo of Hung Bunny and Roman Dog Bird from Melvins’ Lysol album start the show with Buzz recreating the record’s feedback through rough-sounding steel strings, building the tempo and intensity into the second track, which is the first time vocals are added to the swelling sounds.

Roman Bird Dog is a loose stomp, on which the drums have amply been replaced by Trevor’s mastery of the four strings; his dexterity and deftness of touch is almost supernatural, with his fingers remaining a blur much of the time.

Dark Brown Teeth from the King Buzzo album This Machine Kills Artists begins with a low rumble from Trevor and Buzz’s folk psychedelic sound showing range of emotional endeavour on offer this evening. A loose-stringed and short journey through the track gives both men equal time at the microphone, Laid Back Walking from the same record sees Trevor varying his techniques to get all manner of sounds out of his instruments, be they his fingers, his bow and the creative use of what looks like a clothes peg.

The duo’s cover of Sidewalk Begging, originally by Texas punk band, Dicks, shows the strength of the partnership as the tune goes from the anarchic to the bluesy and almost psychedelic, borrowing a little of the sound of The Doors at times.

I Like Clean Stuff and Dirty One & The Poor Dog, from the 2022 EP Invention of Hysteria joins with the title track of the recent Eat the Spray EP as the set’s most up to date tunes. There are times throughout the set that Trevor’s bass is the dominant instrument, leaving Buzz’s guitar to carry the rhythm, lending the sound a strange and sometimes uncanny feel. Nothing is off limits for how to extract a sound from the stand-up bass and Mr Dunn uses fingers, hands and his bow on the polished wood body, all in pursuit of that one particular note.

Crowd favourite Suicide in Progress, from Melvins’ Nude with Boots record hits hard and the bass is so low as to cause fear that a shark attack is imminent. The droning bottom end of Boris is given new life through the thick strings of and Trevor’s magic touch, while Buzz grinds the sludgy riff from his acoustic guitar.

Clearly Mock She is meant as a Kiss soundalike and accomplishes it in spades, the Gift of Sacrifice track losing none of its intention at Manchester tonight. After which Buzz leaves the stage to Trevor, who creates a feedback loop akin to the work of the Noise support artist Ni Maitres, who bamboozled us early punters with a barrage of commotion, devoid of melody, but full of creative prowess.