I don’t know what the Moistboyz guitars ever did to them. I don’t know what transgression they committed that causes the Moistboyz to pound, smack, and thrash them in such a phantasmagoria of bone crushing heavy metal riffage. This was guitar string S and M.
If you’re a metalhead and you only see one show this month, this year, make it be Monday night’s Moistboyz show up in Mill Valley at Sweetwater Music Hall.
Fans of high-energy rock got their fill Saturday night when the Moistboyz rocked the socks off Slims.
Most people know of the Moistboyz because of their lead guitarist, Mickey Melchiondo who was the head axeman in Ween, a band he co-founded with lead singer Aaron Freeman. The two were such a pair that Mickey was known as Dean Ween while Aaron went by Gene Ween.
For roughly 28 years Mickey provided Hendrix-worthy guitar riffs to Ween's eclectic mix of genres and built a huge and loyal fan base in the process.
I saw almost all their Bay Area shows and for about 20 years there, they were the best live band you could see. Sadly, all that ended in 2012 when Aaron left the band to pursue a solo career and Ween was left in limbo.
Since then Mickey, who owns a couple of fishing boats on the East Coast, has mainly made his living giving guided fishing tours. But anyone who has ever seen him play knows that this man's God-given talent was to shred his axe on stage and now finally after too long, we get to see him again.
The Moistboyz are not new, in fact they've been around since 1991 and have put out five albums since then. Mickey started the band with vocalist Guy Heller.
This time out Mickey and Guy hit the road with a lineup that includes Mondo Generator bassist Nick Olivieri and drummer Michael “Hoss” Wright, along with guitarist Stephen Haas, who mixed the band's new album known simply as Moistboyz V.
The band describes themselves as a "dirt rock duo" and are known for their “brutal charging riffs and songs that fuse classic metal with an outlaw country vibe”.
Fans of punk and heavy metal will love their music as well as any fan of Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page. An average Moistboyz song has a pummeling guitar sound that races along until Mickey jumps in with a face melting guitar lead that elevates the whole song into a kind of spiritual transcendence. It's tight crunchy inspiring stuff.
Saturday night at Slims after an opening act by drums and guitar duo Qui, the Moistboyz hit the stage like a freight train of ass-kicking guitar with Guy Heller’s stream of consciousness vocals and shirtless shimmying providing an almost Iggy and the Stooges style spectacle.
The whole show was a roaring speed freak ride equal parts punk and metal with a twist of glam. Like Ween, the music covered many genres but all of them were heavy, hard, and high energy.
They played hits like “Paperboy” and a particularly crunchy “1.0 F--k No” which was an amazing crescendo of the show.
It was all breathlessly fast and furious, a real adrenaline O.D. I spent a lot of the show just staring and listening in awe to the godlike splendor of Mickey’s shredding guitar.
Catch the band on Monday night up in Mill Valley at Sweetwater Music Hall if you missed the San Francisco show. This band will slice your brain up into strips, fry it up like bacon and serve it to you for breakfast.
