2008-04-28 Bergen, NOR, USf Verftet

LLM
Serpentine -->
S.T.G.-->
She Left on the Sunship
Year Zero
Triggerman
Heartattack Mac
Kill Devil Hills -->
The Alchemyst -->
Taifun
---------------
Like Always
Sinful, Wind-borne
Drug Thing
The Ace
Sunchild
Hogwash


What to say...at some point, I was desperate and preparing in my head the most devastating review I could muster, it was that mediocre. When they came on, it was like neither they nor the crowd were ready to start. LLM was dull, Serpentine downright tedious, and S.T.G. extremely lacklustre, right down to Bent's fluffed lyrics...but at the end of S.T.G. they kicked in another gear, and delivered a *fantastic* Sunship. Year Zero will never be a favourite of mine, and while Triggerman is among the better tracks on BH/BC, the middle section competed with Serpentine for aimless noodling award of 2008. But then...Heartattack Mac, where Snah seemd to turn loose a little, and shook our foundation with the mighty Taurus. Kill Devil Hills could stand a rest, but they played the hell out of The Alchemyst, complete with intro. Still, more noise than substance.
Taifun: perfect 10. Thank you. I can die happily now.

So, a main set which varied between great and the worst I've ever seen them.

But then, a miraculous encore where they pulled one gem after another out of their collective sleeve. Straight ahead rock, perhaps, but at least they were having fun, which they didn't seem to for most of the main set. For all the talk about "a band reborn", I think some guts, out-on-a-limb and general fuck-it attitude was sorely missing for much of today's gig. Maybe it was because it was a Monday. Maybe an off night. I would love to hear a recording to judge it again. Maybe I was just grumpy. After all, how can I complain with a setlist like that? I just feel that they never really gelled tonight. What I'm trying to convey was that tonight was an extremely frustrating experience, but that goes with being an MP fan I guess...

PS: But the sound was much better than last fall.

No offense mate, but if you are expecting to re-experience something from the past, you are bound to get disappointed. To me this show was amazing! Sun Ship was great! The "noodling" you refer to in Year Zero was something called "jamming". Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. In The Alchemyst it definately worked. And it was Kenneth who was leading the way, really cool. The Alchemyst was hands down the highlight of the gig. And the triple Blissard encore! Wow!

Btw: Sound was good, maybe because it wasn't Pidah at FOH, it was some chick. Pidah might have been relegated to monitor mix..?

the couple

Sinful, Wind-borne
Drug Thing

is a sort of wet dream for me!

great set imo!!

R

10 million times better sound at Folken, at least from where I stood.

I think this was a step back from the Folken gig. They were a bit off I think too. But the encore was fantastic!! Turned the night from ok to goooood


Less jamming in Bergen then Stavanger. Alot of the songs faded in to the next. Many half played songs, as far as I can remember.

See U in Bremen/Hamburg.

enjoy!m

I think they touched manmower a little after serpentine, half a minute or so.

Great encore, i agree. But poor sound. Sinful Wind-borne was the best i've ever seen.

Thought i heard Manmover for a minute too right before they went into S.T.G.

Personally I didn't get the impression they were "off" or "bored", but then who am I to step inside their heads?

Plenty of highlights and a gig and a setlist to remember. Heartattack Mac is an obvious favourite along with Drug Thing. Sunchild was very uptempo and Bent's vocals was a note or two higher than on the album. He got away with it, though, and it made the song happier or noisier or motorpsycho anno 2k08-er - you choose. Perfect ending to the show with an excellent Hogwash.

Seems like there's some disagreement about the sound quality, but from where I was standing it was very good.

Fantastic setlist! Soundwise, clearly one of my best experiences from Røkeriet.
The encore is far beyond what I expected! My ears are still hurting, but its worth it!

A couple of vids from last nights concert:

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwWuB7QOrfI[/url] (Year Zero)

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ_AmVt8gWA&feature=related[/url] (Hogwash)

Funny incidents:
- During STG, the guitar-tech raised a guitar just above snahs rack while they were doing the standard "necks-to-the-sky"-move.

- Kapstad hitting his head (on purpose) during one of the long endings, banging cymbals and his own head...

- He also managed to lose a drumstick while playing Hogwash (I think), but found a new one within a sec. He is a pro!

- Bent commented the audience as "Veldig lyttende til å være bergensere!". I would rather say that the audience was boring and uninspired

I had my ups and downs on this concert. The four songs from the new record are magnificent live, but the songs from BH/BC they never seem to nail (except The Ace).
Taifun, Heartattack Mac, Sinful Windborne and Drug Thing were PERFECT! The ending to the Alchymist gave me shivers down the spine!

The sound was well balanced most of the time. Took a while before Bent´s bass got rid of that aweful feeding, and the drums were feeding a bit too - annoying. And the vocals were too much compressed I think, and bad eq on them annoyed me a bit.
But overall good sound, much better than Logen, Bergen last year. Who was doing FOH, it was obviously not Pidah (or has he been through an operation or three?).

From what I Heard from a very reliable source is that Pidah quit being MP's soundguy.

He won't be there this tour.

yeah, bent said in a interview that they changed quite a bit of the crew aswell, so it doesn't seem to unlikely. check out the interview here: [url]http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/distrikt/trondelag/verdi/52086[/url]

Well, after digesting last night's experience a little more, I need to adjust my view slightly.

Last night wasn't among the absolute best MP gigs I've seen. However, it's not a gig I am going to forget real soon either... Partly because of the *killer* setlist - finally I got to hear Heartattack Mac, Taifun and Drug Thing, all among my very favourite MP tracks (and great versions too!), but also for the absolute barnstorming encore. It was kind of strange - it felt like the gig never really took off, still they came on and delivered the best encore I've ever seen them do. The last hour or so of the show had everything the first hour was lacking - loosening up, taking chances, getting into a groove. At their best, they are on it right from the start, but last night they took a looong time to really warm up and get into it.

Like I said, Sunship was, for me, the first great moment. Much, much better than the album version (which is still excellent), with an amazing middle section over the repeated riff, where Snah really stretched out (no aimless noodling there!), with Bent and Kenneth keeping a killer groove.

Then the energy level went down a little with a slightly meandering version of Year Zero, and Triggerman, which they still don't quite nail IMHO.

what a setlist!!! i am very excited to see them in hamburg!