Show Review: Melvins, Redd Kross at The Stone Pony, NJ.
October 1st, 2025.
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“What if we kissed at the Jon Bon Jovi service area” -Anonymous
September 8th, 2025
It’s Wednesday, my dudes. Or it was, and the show calendar was buzzing with activity. Brendan Abernathy was headlining NYC’s Mercury Lounge, but we chose instead to stowaway to Asbury Park in Jersey to The Stone Pony for a Melvins headliner with support from Redd Kross. Have you ever seen a rat on the Amtrak? Anyway, we could not miss this opportunity to see Melvins for the first time, even if we had to Jersey-slide to get there. Here’s what we remember:
We walked in on Redd Kross in between songs, their bassist talking something about Gene Simmons’ solo album, before abruptly cutting himself off to launch into a headbanging power pop song. This was a stage of veterans, Redd Kross has been around since the end of the 70’s. We were confused for a bit because the bassist was Steve McDonald, he’s also the bassist for Melvins. And Dale Crover was on drums, and Dale Crover is the drummer for Melvins. The krossover was deep, and so was Redd Kross’s catalog.
Excitement brewed like nitro coffee during changeover. By the time Melvins stepped on stage, the 850 cap space of The Stone Pony seemed near capacity. They instantly thunderclapped the room with a seriously uptempo version of Working the Ditch from their 2024 album Tarantula Heart. We were thinking “how does this sound so massive” when we realized that they were performing with TWO drummers, Dale Crover and Coady Willis. They often pounded their kits together in unison, and it looked like a psychedelic rock and roll mirror because one was right handed and the other left handed.
To be honest, we’re more versed in Melvins mythology than we are in their discography. Still, we were able to pick up on some heavy hitters from 1993’s Houdini when they roared into the setlist, like Hooch, Night Goat, and Honey Bucket. There was a constant center mosh pit throughout the performance, but when the epileptic riffs of Honey Bucket poured out from stage, it instantly doubled in size like a storm-turned-hurricane. King Buzzo growled a guttural scream that seemed to come from some sort of energy source below his feet.
This was the heaviest, thickest display of rock and roll low-end virtuosity we have seen all year. We spent most of the evening in disbelief. There was no encore, by the time Melvins ended the gig with a dueling drum solo/all out thrash jam, there was nothing more to be said or done. On the way back to NYC we reflected on the power of the performance. Fans from every generational age group showed out in numbers, a testament to the lasting influence Melvins has had on music in their 40+ year career. They spawned Grunge, then spit on it in disgust, choosing instead to continue thrashing to the beat of their own double drums while the genre they helped create killed itself. Nu-metal? A throwback, frozen in time. Stomp-clap? Shut the fuck up. Indie sleaze? Indie who? The fads and the bands riding their waves come and go, but rock and roll will never die, and Melvins are still rocking. Rrrat Pack, out.
| Keywords: | New Jersey | Melvins | Redd Kross | The Stone Pony |
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