Thirteen years after their last live tour, Tomahawk returned to the stage in Boston with the kind of controlled chaos only musicians of this calibre could produce. With Mike Patton, Duane Denison, Trevor Dunn and John Stanier tearing through the stranger corners of the band’s catalogue, and The Melvins delivering their customary seismic support, the Citizens House of Blues hosted an evening of noise rock at its most unpredictable, muscular and gloriously unhinged.
Tomahawk – Melvins
Citizens House of Blues, Boston – 30 July 2026
Words And Photography: Tim Bugbee
Mike Patton has long been held as a singer with an incredibly broad range, and it turns out that applies to his musical projects as well. Mainly known for his work with Faith No More and Mr. Bungle, he is equally at home with low-key trip-hop (Lovage), histrionic noise and improvisation (Hemophiliac), and avant jazz (Moonchild).
Tomahawk is his foray into noise rock, joined by luminaries from other well-known bands. A serious argument could be made for this being the best supergroup of all time, with heavy hitters like Duane Denison (The Jesus Lizard, Legendary Shack Shakers), John Stanier (Battles, Helmet) and Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Fantômas, multiple collaborations with John Zorn).
It had been thirteen years since they last played live, and the dust was shaken from their road cases in anticipation of their 21-show tour with bedfellows the Melvins.
Wiry, shifting tempos, weird phrasing and tangents into the unknown were all well represented tonight. Mostly stationed behind a console with various electronics, Patton put his vocal range through its paces as the band raged through their back catalogue.
Strangely, their most recent LP, 2013’s Tonic Immobility was not represented, but the meat of their discography (Mit Gas, Tomahawk, Oddfellows) certainly was. Stepping onto the stage with the fat brass tones of Clark Street, the on-point song selection of Flashback kicked things off.
Birdsong was an ambient brood piece until a sample of a bird’s chirp kicked Stanier into engine stoke mode, Patton got his best avian voice going, and Denison ripped off spidery figures in a fashion only his genetic programming that controls his fingers can supply.
In a way, that distinctive style of guitar makes The Jesus Lizard the most obvious thread in the weave, and Dunn’s lower end definitely has some similarities to David Wm Sims, especially when he’s using a pick.
On Capt Midnight, the calm before the storm was disintegrated into a billion pieces when Stanier brought the hammer down, and then mixed the beat from a straightforward 4/4 into something way more interesting.
A curveball cover of Duane Eddy’s Stalkin’ was something I did not see coming, but God Hates A Coward demonstrated Patton’s prolonged exposure to Zorn when he turned to face Stanier at the close of the song, snapped his fingers together like an alligator, perfectly synced with Stanier’s closing drum hit, and turned and smiled to no one in particular.
Saying they were going to honour Boston by playing a medley of Aerosmith, J Geils, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and The Cars, unsurprisingly they pulled an about-face and played Rise Up Dirty Waters, the perfect Boston-adjacent Tomahawk song for the moment.
I hope a dozen years does not elapse again until they get the itch to play, but if you are in the path of any of the remaining shows, you know what to do.
Melvins
Patton’s ties to the Melvins go back to the late ’90s when Fantômas was started, another supergroup that featured Buzz Osborne on guitar, Dunn in the regular bass slot and Slayer’s Dave Lombardo playing drums.
A few years later, the quartet would expand as Melvins’ members Dale Crover, Kevin Rutmanis and David Scott Stone would join the fun. There could not be a more obvious choice for tour support, and if there is a harder-working band that is in its fourth decade, I would like to know about it.
Crover is fully recovered from the emergency surgery that sidelined him a couple of years ago, and Coady Willis is back as a full-time member, one half of the four-armed drum machine.
Seriously, their simultaneous drumming is a thing to behold, and I am glad he is back in the fold.
Plagued a bit by a weak vocal mix, the sturm und drang of Buzzo’s guitar neatly scalped the people hanging at the rail. They played a couple of fairly recent songs (Working The Ditch, Never Say You’re Sorry, and maybe they can segue right into You’ve Never Been Right for later shows) but used their hour-ish slot wisely to dip into the bare-knuckled bangers that fans want to hear.
It’s Shoved, The Bit, Hag Me, Civilized Worm and Honey Bucket were all songs that got the pit churning and the heads banging.
This has been one of the more stable lineups of the band’s history, and Willis and bass player/singer/acrobat Steve McDonald are perfect fits to the core axis of Buzzo and Crover.
A couple of surprises (avert your eyes if you want to avoid spoilers) were their excellent cover of The Rolling Stones’ Sway with lead vocals by McDonald, and the closer of their mightiest riff, Night Goat, which was punctuated by the early arrival of Dunn to the stage, playing alongside McDonald.
The Melvins are more dependable than any triple-A bond rating, and you always know you will receive a world-class drubbing that makes you feel wonderful afterwards.
