Motorpsycho - You Gotta Hang On To The Trip You're On...

[media stories: english: 2000]

A psychedelicacy

Concert review of the Samfundet-gig / 2000-03-17 taken from the
Norwegian newspaper
VG, 2000-03-19.
English translation done by Rolf Klausen.

Concert: Motorpsycho
Venue: Samfundet, Trondheim
Audience: Ca. 1500 (completely sold out)
Rating: 5

What is wrong when the world's best band from Norway in the year 2000 bypasses dead heroes like the Doors and Allman Brothers Band when it comes to heavy, american hippie-psychedelia?

Not much. Not as long as you already know Motorpsycho. They don't care. At least as long as they can decide what they want to do themselves. And what to play.

They have done it for years. But - to be academic - there are factors and contemporary variables which say that the sometime introverted Motorpsycho now maybe should play by the public's rules, not just their own. I.e. the charts. After almost a month the ten year old eccentric quality-trio was on top of all three official charts in Norway. Almost at the same time. Motorpsycho wasn't just for the «people who worship them» anymore - now everyone liked them.

Content [???] Rockers

A funny freak-thing to take with you, Bent Sæther said to VG in February. And went on as before. Because Motorpsycho live is still a 50 / 50-mix of genuine - and often uninteresting - acidtrips into a landscape you have to smoke more than usual tobacco to become a part of. And suddenly they are in content [or whatever , help me?!!!] rockers which none - I repeat, none! - other Norwegian band earlier has been even close to delivering from a stage. I mean - who else can start a live set in their home-country with a twelve minutes version of the Allman Brothers-classic instrumental "In memory of Elizabeth Reed"? Who else can use 25 minutes on the first 3 songs, staring uninterruptedly on the own shoes while the hair bangs on the guitar-strings, and get away with it?

The new Motorpsycho-member (only live), the keyboarder Baard Slagsvold from the sleeping Tre Små Kinesere has to take his part of the honor of the Doors-factor, but anyway he's a long-missed addition to a sound which after so many years is starting to become static and to well-known.

Pure Pop-Happiness

After having followed Motorpsycho eagerly the last decade since "8 soothing songs for Ruth" I must say I'm rather fed-up with the band's psychedelic trips. I have said it before - it is the unpredictable about the band which is about to be predicatable. At the same time as "S.T.G.", the fresh "Go To California", "Hey Jane", "Nerve Tattoo", "Walkin' With J." and "Vortex Surfer" makes me wanna cry out because of pure pop-happiness. Motorpsycho in a nutshell.

Stein Østbø

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[media stories: english: 2000]
	A psychedelicacy Concert review of the Samfundet-gig / 2000-03-17 taken from the Norwegian newspaper VG, 2000-03-19. English translation done by Rolf Klausen. Concert: Motorpsycho Venue: Samfundet, Trondheim Audience: Ca. 1500 (completely sold out) Rating: 5 What is wrong when the world's best band from Norway in the year 2000 bypasses dead heroes like the Doors and Allman Brothers Band when it comes to heavy, american hippie-psychedelia? Not much. Not as long as you already know Motorpsycho. They don't care. At least as long as they can decide what they want to do themselves. And what to play. They have done it for years. But - to be academic - there are factors and contemporary variables which say that the sometime introverted Motorpsycho now maybe should play by the public's rules, not just their own. I.e. the charts. After almost a month the ten year old eccentric quality-trio was on top of all three official charts in Norway. Almost at the same time. Motorpsycho wasn't just for the «people who worship them» anymore - now everyone liked them. Content [???] Rockers A funny freak-thing to take with you, Bent Sæther said to VG in February. And went on as before. Because Motorpsycho live is still a 50 / 50-mix of genuine - and often uninteresting - acidtrips into a landscape you have to smoke more than usual tobacco to become a part of. And suddenly they are in content [or whatever , help me?!!!] rockers which none - I repeat, none! - other Norwegian band earlier has been even close to delivering from a stage. I mean - who else can start a live set in their home-country with a twelve minutes version of the Allman Brothers-classic instrumental "In memory of Elizabeth Reed"? Who else can use 25 minutes on the first 3 songs, staring uninterruptedly on the own shoes while the hair bangs on the guitar-strings, and get away with it? The new Motorpsycho-member (only live), the keyboarder Baard Slagsvold from the sleeping Tre Små Kinesere has to take his part of the honor of the Doors-factor, but anyway he's a long-missed addition to a sound which after so many years is starting to become static and to well-known. Pure Pop-Happiness After having followed Motorpsycho eagerly the last decade since "8 soothing songs for Ruth" I must say I'm rather fed-up with the band's psychedelic trips. I have said it before - it is the unpredictable about the band which is about to be predicatable. At the same time as "S.T.G.", the fresh "Go To California", "Hey Jane", "Nerve Tattoo", "Walkin' With J." and "Vortex Surfer" makes me wanna cry out because of pure pop-happiness. Motorpsycho in a nutshell. Stein Østbø Back to the Media Stories page...