MR BUNGLE HAVE ANNOUNCED 3 EXCLUSIVE SHOWS FEAT. MIKE PATTON, DAVE LOMBARDO AND SCOTT IAN!

Posted on by Oran


The experimental rock band Mr. Bungle are reuniting for their first live shows in almost 20 years. The band’s most recent album was 1999’s California — it celebrated its 20th anniversary just last month — and the band played their last live show the following year.

Thee group will be performing their 1986 demo The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny live in full at three concerts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York in February 2020.

This incarnation of Mr Bungle will consist of Trevor Dunn, Mike Patton, and Trey Spruance, and they’ll be joined by Scott Ian on guitar and Dave Lombardo on drums.

All five of them provided individual statements about the reunion via press release:

Trey Spruance:
Ever since Trevor hatched ‘The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny’ v.2 idea a few years back, Patton, Lombardo, he and I had each been incubating some idea of that egg. Lombardo called me one day and asked me to make some guitar demos so he could learn the songs. He had this generous idea to surprise the other guys with being totally ready to go with the tunes.

It just so happened that I was in Eureka at the time. So, I found myself re-visiting all of those riffs in the same goddamned town and in the same goddamned house where I recorded all the original guitars on that demo 33 years earlier. There was something about actually physically working out the mania of those riffs again at DAVE LOMBARDO’S request, in that environment — it just split my head open. It wasn’t long before the train of destiny had picked up too much speed for any of us to jump off.

Trevor Dunn:
When we recorded that demo, we were 16 and 17 years old and we were absolutely serious about the music. At the time, we were living the deluge of ’80s metal and absorbing every riff and every drum fill from every known band from Denmark to San Francisco.

The recording and playing were amateurish (save for Trey’s video-game-solos) but the schooled composition and spirit were solid. I always felt like this music held its own and deserved to be presented in a clearer and more defined package even if it meant being 33 years later.”

Mike Patton:
I remember writing riffs for this cassette in my parent’s garage, with no heat, so I recorded in a sleeping bag for analog warmth, playing a one-stringed acoustic guitar that was piped into a ghetto blaster. Thank god I had Trevor and Trey to help decipher my rotten riffs into something intelligible!

Scott Ian:
When Mike hit me up about this my brain thought he was asking me if I wanted to come to a show, him knowing I am a HUGE Bungle fan. When I realised he actually meant for me to play guitar with them it broke my brain, I was a giggly drooling mess. Somehow I pecked out Y E S on my keyboard and holy crap I’m playing in Mr. Bungle.

Seriously, it’s an honour and a privilege to get to play with my favourite ‘Mr.’ band of all time.”

Dave Lombardo:
I don’t know what was in the water in Eureka California, but it certainly wasn’t clean. This is going to be a ridiculously, insane band to play with and I am honoured to have been asked to join the wrath.”

Oran O’Beirne

www.overdrive.ie 2019