The Meat Puppets were an early and formative part of my personal punk rock experience. The band’s name, giggle-inducing and unforgettable, always stood out from poster-filled kiosks and listings in local weeklies. It didn’t take long before I was enamored with their distinctly off-key crunch - a mix of psychedelic country and fast and loud punk. Albums like Up On The Sun and II furthered my obsession with Meat Puppet twang. While other bands on the SST roster managed to rise more profoundly (like Hüsker Dü, The Minutemen and Descendents) or crash in a more beautiful mess (Black Flag), few others have lived to tell the tale.

Fast-forward twenty-odd years. The band reforms from a long hiatus, seemingly on the strength of a MySpace bulletin. Whatever is the catalyst, the Tempe, AZ-bred Kirkwood brothers (now billing themselves from Austin, TX) issue their twelfth record, Sewn Together (their second since reforming).

They showed up Saturday in St. Augustine, opening for a similarly “reformed” Stone Temple Pilots at the Amphitheatre. The Puppets set was punctuated by greasy Southern boogie versions of their classics like “Lake of Fire” and “Oh Me”. While not exactly an about-face from their stoner punk roots, the show seemed more ZZ Top than Bad Brains.

Rock and roll might never die, but punk definitely shows its age.

– Chris Shanley

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