Subject: Motorpsycho show, Bergen, 10.10.98
By: Erlend Hammer <------ shoegazer
Written whilst listening to: Dr. John/ Gris-Gris; Tribute to Spacemen 3
and Bro Evil 39.

Why, oh why, is it that I always have to end up standing next to some
flowery twat, hippy-ass, motherfucking faggot who can't stand still
during the show. This time it was a huge skinhead fucker who looked like
the retarded cousin of the singer in Dum Dum Boys. Every time I go to
see a concert I'm embarassed on behalf of my drunken fellow Norwegians
who can't shut up and have to jump about as if they were 14 year-olds at
an East 17 concert. But I won't complain about that. Nor will I complain
about the fact that I think Motorpsycho need to get their heads out of
their 70s retro-shite-sound infected arseholes. Finding the bad in
things is easy (and of course also a lot of fun), but my opinion of
course is of no consequence at all.

One fun thing happened, though, and that was that while waiting in line
outside the club this utterly insane person started talking to me. He
was from Bergen, but he said he lived in Trondheim, he was talking about
show at Veita last week or whenever and he was talking about their
equipment. When we got into the club this guy stuck with me and and my
friend Geir who is a git and he went right to the stage to see what
stuff Motorpsycho had brought with them and he started talking about
their different amps and lots of other things that didn't make any sense
whatsoever to your friend and humble narrator here. Apparently Geb's
drumset was missing this special cymbal which had been used at Veita.

So then, they opened with Un Chien D'Espace and it was a very nice
version of the song I think, quite short first part and then a long,
brilliant white-noise section in the middle before it went back to
normal again. I don't know if they've opened with Un Chien before, but I
think it was a good opener. I just wish they'd start using Vortex Surfer
as the first song instead, but oh well.Thorleif Hoff wrote:

Other Other Fool. I'd never heard this song before and I wasn't
particularly impressed with it.

You Lied. I don't know. I remember the first time I ever heard this
song, it was on the radio and the show XL with Espen Thoresen. I didn't
like it at first, but I think it's getting better, man. It also seems to
have become somewhat of a live-favorite amongst a lot of people.

Black To Comm. I'd never heard this either. Great. Is this the MC5 cover
tune? I agree with whoever said that four covers during one show is too
much. At least when the songs they cover are all shit.

Okay, I'm not going to go through all the songs, I don't really have
anything to say about all that many of them anyway. One song really
disappointed me, though, and that was Psychonaut. I'd never seen or
heard this song live before and it just didn't work I think. I don't
know why, but I think it was mainly due to the lack of treble.
Psychonaut is supposed to sound like the screeching brakes of a train
desperately trying to avoid killing some youngsters in a car at Gol. And
it just didn't sound like that at all.

And yes, they did of course play Watersound and it was great fun to see
how happy a lot of people's faces looked when they recognized the song.
And that of course happened again when Superstooge turned into The
Wheel. I'm afraid I can't say much about The Wheel as I don't really
remember that part of the show.

Vortex Surfer sounded better the last time I saw them by the way. Okay,
I think that's it about the music. And there's not much else to talk
about. Bent needs to get a haircut and Snah looks a bit like Satan I
think. Geb was very handsome as always, though. Easily the most handsome
man in Norwegian rock. Bye for now.

***********************************************************************
"The good are not rewarded,           - Peter Greenaway -
the wicked are rarely punished         "Drowning By Numbers"
and the innocent are always abused" 
***********************************************************************



Here's the setlist, which I'm pretty sure is correct (I was right smack in
the middle of the front row, so I could easily see it):

Un Chien d'Espace
Other Other Fool (to settle it: this *is* the same as "Cherry Red Rose")
You Lied
Black to Comm (w/slight "Back to Source" content)
Fade to Grey
Watersound
Superstooge ----> 
The Wheel ---->
Rad. Freq. 38.9 (that's what the setlist said!)
Psychonaut (setlist said "P-naut")
Shakin' All Over
Summertime Blues
Young Man Blues (setlist said "Y.M.B.") (w/a bit of "Motoring")
Vortex Surfer

I'll chime in with some comments a little later, but all in all I was a
little disappointed, mainly because of the setlist. Four cover tunes are
just too many, and compared to last week's concert, look at what's missing:
S.T.G., Manmower, Feel, Starmelt and Evernine, all of which are among my
favourites. 
High points were Un Chien, Watersound, Rad. Freq. and Vortex Surfer.

Cool thing: I got one of Gebhardt's drum sticks, and Mr. Power got the other
one! :-)


Thorleif S. Hoff