By Scott McLennan

Mike Patton’s supergroup navigated pandemic-era anxieties with surgical precision while Melvins provided savage support.

Tomahawk and Melvins at the House of Blues Boston on July 30

Mike Patton of Tomahawk at House of Blues. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Tomahawk made its return to a Boston concert stage worth a 13-year wait as the four-piece amalgam of top-tier practitioners of weirdo rock delivered a fast-paced romp through its surreal and pointed material at the House of Blues.

In a bit of programming perfection, Melvins play the opening slot on the sardonically named “A Huge Waste of Your Time and Money Tour.” Both bands traffic in seemingly chaotic music, only to make surprisingly agile and precise sonic shifts that demonstrate just how in control they really are.

Duane Denison of Tomahawk at House of Blues. Photo Paul Robicheau

Since last performing in Boston, Tomahawk made the album Tonic Immobility. Released in the spring of 2021, the recording taps into the crosscurrents of pandemic-era anxieties and the vapid consumerism as it condemns the forces hollowing out what’s left of any sort of cultural soul in this country.

Tomahawk’s set featured eight of that record’s 12 tracks, and the material’s frazzled dismay and panic sounded ever more relevant.

Tomahawk singer Mike Patton masterfully navigates the turbulent musical seas churned by drummer John Stanier, guitarist Duane Denison, and bassist Trevor Dunn. Since all of these guys are associated with other bands, their coming together usually leads to Tomahawk being called a “supergroup.” Yet, what Tomahawk does, musically, is not supplemental or tangential to what Patton, Stanier, Dunn, and Denison do in their other bands. Tomahawk strikes me as a freestanding creative outlet that happens to be outside of the other roles we have heard these guys in.

Denison in particular seemed to be especially liberated in Tomahawk, freely applying wiry guitar work to songs that were dunked in metal, country, pop and R&B – though all the tunes were given enough of an artistic twist to spin outside easy conventional categorizing.

On top of that, Patton is probably the best singer in rock when it comes to deconstructing conventions. As a vocalist, Patton is technically on point no matter the style or genre that comes his way. As a performer, he is fearless in terms of taking the material outside of the usual comfort zone, though he is disciplined, not inviting others in the band to become self-indulgent.

Credit Stanier for his steadfast work at the drum kit, keeping all of it on track, and Dunn for not just holding down low-end rhythms, but also for coloring the songs with a rich array of tones.

Unsurprisingly, Tomahawk launched its hour-long set with “Flashback,” from the band’s 2001 self-titled debut album. The band nailed the quick-switch rhythmic turns, as Patton delivered the tune’s coiled absurdism from his workstation of devices and microphones set up center stage.

From there, the band moved into a set of songs from Tonic Immobility that featured the muscular turns of “Predators and Scavengers” and “Business Casual” before settling into the eerie groove of “Doomsday Fatigue.”

Tomahawk’s versatility was on full display in this performance, with a three-song run pulled from 2003’s Mit Gas album. A contemporary R&B thread ran through “Capt Midnight” before the band summoned up the twisted industrial fury of “Rape this Day,” landing eventually on the psychedelic sprawl of “Birdsong” (no not the Jerry Garcia song, but Tomahawk’s own “Birdsong.”)

Trevor Dunn of Tomahawk at House of Blues. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Before offering a few cuts from 2013’s Oddfellows album, Tomahawk mentioned the pop-country fest happening across the street at Fenway Park, with Dunn, wearing a black cowboy hat all night, introducing himself as Tim McGraw, who was headlining the other concert. Ahh, when worlds collide on Lansdowne Street.

Tomahawk brought the show’s main set to a climax with towering versions of “Sidewinder” and “Totem,” the former a lament about the numbing grip of the material world, the latter a call to unleash the power of spiritual awakening.

During the encores, Denison led the charge through the classic rock ’n’ roll elixir of Duane Eddy’s “Stalkin’,” before the band went into the jazzier vistas of its own “Rise Up Dirty Water.”

Tomahawk closed with its signature “God Hates a Coward,” a propulsive bit of raw, unhinged mania that was made all the more unsettling because Patton sang it through a voice-distorting oxygen mask. Unseen on concert stage for over than a decade, Tomahawk proved that it has lost none of its provocative edge.

Buzz Osborne of the Melvins at House of Blues. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Melvins, who tour and record with a regularity that is the inverse of Tomahawk’s output, played a set that, on paper, varied little from the shows it was playing last year. Still, there was nothing stale or canned about the Melvins’ savage performance style. The drumming duo of Dale Crover and Coady Willis is a band unto itself, given the pair’s undeniable power and dexterity. Atop that battery, guitarist and singer Buzz Osborne howled his twisted missives and bass player Steven McDonald sparred with other guitarist’s heavy, sludgy riffs. Songs would swell to anarchistic proportions before snapping into a steady, hypnotic calm — only to stir themselves up again.

There were some nice twists. Melvins brought “The Bit,” always a high-octane experience, back into the live repertoire. McDonald sang a bombastic version of the Rolling Stones’ “Sway.” And Tomahawk’s Dunn, a onetime member of Melvins, joined for the set-closing “Night Goat,” with the two bassists exchanging heavy fire for an extended jam that was one more exquisite sonic spin to a show that balanced feral energy with smart musicianship.

Scott McLennan covered music for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette from 1993 to 2008. He then contributed music reviews and features to The Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Portland Press Herald, and WGBH, as well as to The Arts Fuse. He also operated the NE Metal blog to provide in-depth coverage of the region’s heavy metal scene.