Mr. Bungle The Night They Came Home Livestream
photo by Jack Bennett

Mr. Bungle livestream: Van Halen cover, Henry Rollins cameo & more (pics, review, setlist)

Mr. Bungle released their excellent The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo (read our review) on 10/30, and they celebrated with a livestreamed concert dubbed The Night They Came Home! on Halloween. The new album features proper studio recordings of the songs from Mr. Bungle’s thrashy 1986 demo and, like on the album (and at their reunion tour in early 2020), original members Mike Patton, Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn were joined by thrash legends Scott Ian (Anthrax) and Dave Lombardo (Slayer). As you’d probably expect from Mr. Bungle, the livestream was highly entertaining, and they cared as much about comedy as they cared about putting on a killer metal show. It began documentary-style, with the members of the band telling stories on camera about their history and about how this current iteration of the band came together, and then comedian (and longtime Bungle pal) Neil Hamburger did an opening set, followed by Mr. Bungle’s anticipated performance.

Like at the tour earlier this year, they stuck exclusively to the thrashy Easter Bunny material, plus a few well-matched covers including “Hell Awaits” by Dave Lombardo’s former band, “Habla Español O Muere” (the reworked version of “Speak English Or Die” by Scott Ian’s band Stormtroopers of Death, which also appears on the new Easter Bunny album), Corrosion of Conformity’s “Loss For Words” (also on Bungle’s new album), Circle Jerks’ “World Up My Ass,” and Bungle-fied versions of Seals & Crofts’ “Summer Breeze” and the Mr. Rogers theme. They also played the set with Eddie Van Halen-branded guitar amps and encored with a cover of Van Halen’s “Loss of Control,” with Scott Ian playing EVH’s signature “shark” guitar.

They performed their set in a library (the Eureka Main Library in Eureka, CA, to be exact), but that environment didn’t tame Mr. Bungle’s set one bit. They rocked as hard as they do on stage, they had a light show, and it was a pro-shot, multi-cam stream, so you really felt the energy despite the usual limitations of a livestream. Plus, it’s a thrill to watch legendary musicians like these perform in any capacity. From Mike Patton’s antics to the rest of the band’s jaw-dropping musicianship, you couldn’t look away. They also made some tongue-in-cheek references to the fact that there was no audience, with comedic in-between-song cameos by Henry Rollins, Buzz Osborne, David Yow, Brian Posehn, Eric Andre, Josh Homme, Dennis from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (known IRL as Glenn Howerton), and others acting as the sole audience member. Rollins’ bit is especially funny, but no spoilers.

If you haven’t watched (or want to rewatch), the stream is available on-demand at mrbungle.live until Tuesday (11/3) at 3 PM EDT. You can also watch a couple 30-second clips (including one of the Van Halen cover), see more pics of the stream, and view the full setlist below.

Setlist
Won’t You Be My Neighbor (Mr. Rogers cover)
Anarchy Up Your Anus
Raping Your Mind
Bungle Grind
Methematics/Hell Awaits (Slayer cover)/Summer Breeze (Seals & Crofts cover)
Eracist
World Up My Ass (Circle Jerks cover)
Glutton For Punishment
Hypocrites/Habla Español O Muere (SOD cover)
Spreading The Thighs of Death/Loss For Words (Corrosion of Conformity cover)
Sudden Death

Encore:
Loss of Control (Van Halen cover)

Speaking of Mr. Bungle and Eric Andre, Eric just interviewed Mike Patton for Revolver: