Toronto got a huge treat when Mr Bungle rolled into town. Five of the thrashiest players in the business got together and created their own brand of weirdness and chaos to the stage! These players are Mike Patton-(Faith No More)Vocals, Trey Spruance-Guitar, Scott Ian-(Anthrax)Guitar, Trevor Dunn- Bass and Dave Lombardo-(Slayer)-Drums. The sold out show of 2500 people crammed together to get their mosh on, and they did it well. Mr Bungle came out to a slightly distorted Strauss tune and then proceeded to get in our face for the next 4 songs, with songs titles like Grizzly Adams, Sudden Death, Hypocrites and Bungle Grind. In typical Mike Patton Fashion, he switched gears entirely and covered 10CC”s I’m not in love. This latest incarnation of Mr Bungle focused on their new material which is mostly Thrash based, but with plenty of twists and turns.
Between the mosh pit and the insanity going on stage, I looked around to see the crowd filled with a lot of females, very small and joining in the moshing and craziness as any 6 foot plus metalhead was doing. It added to the entire experience that Mr Bungle can bring in middle aged mothers to get their Ya-Ya’s out! I talked with a few of them. One had a 20 year old son up in the balcony while his Mom is screaming at him that she is in the pit with her best friend. This crowd was fantastic because some guy pulled out a pair of XXX large underwear and threw them on stage, to Mike Patton’s amusement. He picked them up and placed them on Dave’s drum kit. There seemed to be a nice flow of crowd surfing going on as well. I felt sorry for the security up front. It was one guy who kept helping these surfers in the media pit. At one point a surfer came through with his pants falling down and as he was being helped over the barrier, he rolled over and his ass went straight into the security guys face. This was a true moment where you should truly say no to crack!
Mike Patton what can you say about this guy, Unpredictable would be my first word. He walked on stage and continued to arrange his papers and materials on two music stands. He looked like a focused conductor ready to have a psychotic episode. He played with his rubber pig during the song True, by Spandeau ballet. He even questioned why his audience insisted on throwing up GG Allin dolls on stage. I will let you research GG Allin because I have already given you too much information.
Just to give you an idea of the insanity of the set list, Mr Bungle also decided to do a few covers from bands like 10cc, Slayer, Seals and Croft and the Cro-Mags. You know you are going to be calling your therapist the next day to work through this concert. Especially if you could live with the memory of listening to a song called, “My ass is on fire”, and they finish by singing the Pepto Bismol jingle- When you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea…
For me the end of the evening was awesome, because they finished us off with a Sepultura classic- “Territory”. Fans of the mosh pit truly left satisfied because they were all extra sweaty and looked exhausted. Another successful day for Mr Bungle.
Here are a few images of Mr Bungle: