The Dirtbombs

Ko Melina, bassist/guitarist for The Dirtbombs, is one of the few real rock goddess walking the planet right now. A quiet, serious looking Vietnamese chick with average looks, onstage she becomes larger-than-life, a monster, a sexpot of the first degree. She plays a standard Fender Mustang like a bass guitar most of the time, adding sweet, hypnotic guitar rhythms when the song calls for it. She sings, she dances, she poses, she runs the band. She is the perfect woman. She is a goddess without whom the world would be a dull, gray place indeed.

When I was able to tear my eyes away from Ko, I was able to realize that yes, I was in Jake’s, in the heart of Bloomington at an explosive set by Detroit’s finest, The Dirtbombs. And much as I was smitten with Ko, she was just a part of a fiery rock combo. On the left side of the stage was a hulking curly-headed Bonham-like hammer-of-Thor drummer trying his best to beat the fuck out of the drumkit. On the right, a powerfully Moonish curly-headed, seven-arms-of-Shiva drummer doing his best to shake every ass in the place. I barely noticed the other bass player. He must have been good, but he wasn’t no Ko.

Soul Brother #1 Mick Collins held it all together in the middle. He is a little bit Hendrix, a bit Otis Redding, and some Stevie Wonder with hints of Sly Stone. And I’m just talking about his voice. His distinctive lo-fi guitar freak-out show is highly entertaining and a little alarming at the same time. He even managed to take the INXS track “Need You Tonight” and turn it into a sweaty Detroit rock anthem.

The climax came at the end of the third encore, a bottom-heavy funk rave-up dedicated to the Indiana state trooper who had pulled them over earlier in the day. The curly-headed hammer-of-Thor drummer had his floor tom on his head and Ko was beating on it full-force. He came out of it in a raging psychotic freak-out, flailing away before tackling a nearby photographer, dry-humping him and running off the stage. Meanwhile, Ko and that other bass player dude switched up instruments and Ko slapped out some crazy funk, before raising her arm in a triumphant rock goddess pose.

If only all rock shows could be this good.

–Jeff Napier

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