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I am drooling over this setlist, but I'd take The Wheel over Golden Core any day of the week. Cool to see both Un Chien and HBM back in the set. Haven't seen both played in the same concert since Oslo. I was hoping for both of them in Copenhagen, as well as Stained Glass which funnily enough was first time played in Hamburg the day after. Still happy with Copenhagen. But: Having been to Schlachthof several times, knowing the atmosphere of the venue and the dedication of the audience, and combining this with the psychedelic-let's-kick-back-and-jam mood that usually hits the band after a run of increasingly monstrous concerts, I can totally picture and feel the vibe. I know a lot of people who were there, and I wish I had been there together with you. Let's hear the reviews!
Ok, still digesting here. I have heard writing down your thoughts is supposed to help:
ASFE (I like this song, it's groovy)
Intrepid Explorer (first space-out of the night, epic stuff already in song number two)
Dream Home (complete with flute solos played by Kristoffer on keys)
Cloudwalker (complete with the quiet opening)
August (another highlight, the jamming, the breaks, Tomas on the drums here… ridiculous!)
No Evil (second half always reminds me why they keep on playing this one, wow)
Hey Jane (If I said I have heard this one 100 times live, would you believe me?)
The Cuckoo (with the quiet intro, Snah on lead vocals)
Kill Some Day (nice surprise, but also contributes to the musically "darker" feel of the night)
Up/down (beautiful, a very welcome breath of air)
A Pacific Sonata (first half rather messy, needs practice. second half straight into orbit)
The Tower (more epic-ness and intense jamming)
Lacuna/Sunrise > (funky jams, just great and a lighter mood than the rest, a huge highlight)
I.M.S. (yes, thank you! Trippin' away)
Bartok of the Universe (brutal, dark, heavy, proggy)
Ship of Fools (another epic highlight, this must surely be the last song of the main set?)
The Alchemyst (wow, we get yet another epic, like butter on bacon!)
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Plan #1 (ends the night in that musically dark mood I mentioned, as it kind of completes the mood set by Kill Some Day which also lingers in so many of the newer songs)
@Tomcat: Yes, I enjoyed the show very much. It was just a lot to digest. The new songs are so saturated with playing and details, and even more so with a fourth member. Insane jams and solos going on inside every single one of them, one heavier than the other. With the addition of Kristoffer Lo they also move closer to the sound of the records, now able to add more layers and detail.
@Kid A; Yes, it was killer. Lacuna/Sunrise was also killer. The intense space-out in the second half of A Pacific Sonata sounded like they already prepared to end the main set. So every song after that was a surprise and a killer.
The Sonata is the new Un Chien, I guess.
@Pitje007: I didn't pay too much attention to the merch, I just bought the tour EP. But it was not a lot they had, which they never usually do on their way down to Germany. I think they get merch delivered after crossing the German border, possibly in Hamburg, at least records, since it can be very expensive to declare merch at the border, and their record label is of course situated in Hamburg.
Great recording! No audible audience chit-chat or other usual flaws. Band sounds inspired and hard-working. First ASFE, Colemine Pony and Flick of the tour. New songs already evolving, as do still also the songs from the last record. Beautiful Lacuna with a very jazzy jam, beautiful transition from The Cockoo to Up/Down, and magical transition from a spacy HBM to Fool's Gold, to mention a few highlights. In fact, the whole concert is a highlight. A relatively quiet but appreciative audience creates the room and concentration onstage for improvisation and off into orbit we go! A well-balanced set of psychedelic, proggy and spacy with really good dynamics between songs old and new. Thanks to Metallican & Spacebandit for making it possible for me to hear this great concert!
Thanks for description and picture, ThorEgil. Sounds and looks pretty special. It would be very interesting to hear this spacedog. Do you know of a recording?
With the risk of explaining something obvious to everyone in here:
"Un Chien" is French for "a dog", and K9 is a numeronym for "canine", which again comes from latin and means "dog". I have heard Bent sometimes refer to it as "bikkja", which is the Norse word for "the dog".
From http://motorpsycho.fix.no/thisis/trivia/
"Motorpsycho did two special performances at Cinemateket in Oslo october 96. It was in connection with the viewing of Luis Bunuels surrealistic filmclassic "Un Chien Andalou" [An Andalusian Dog] from 1928. The last show was an extra show because of the big success with the first. The shows were supposed to be improvised. Not really, but it was an instrumental version of Un Chien D’Espace. Lasted 17 minutes."
I have heard/read somewhere that Un Chien d'Espace, "A dog in space", is about Laika, the Russian dog that became the first living creature in orbit around Earth on board Sputnink II in 1957. But I fail to make the connection between the text and this explanation, nor can I find any reference here. Help anyone?
Musically, though, the space travel theme is not difficult to hear. The song sounds like a trip in space. I always imagine we're preparing for take off in the quiet beginning, while the heavy part shoots us out in space, entering the jam part we're in orbit. Then we're brought back to Earth when the last verse is sung. Or are we? At least musically the song comes full circle. 13 of the most stunningly beautiful minutes of Motorpsycho music was released on Angels & Daemons at Play in 1997, together with "Have Spacesuit, Will travel", a jam which never has been repeated live, to my knowledge.
During the 1998 tour, Un Chien continued to develop as a vehicle for jamming, and the middle part was expanded into the suite structure known as K9 on RW1. Audience recordings reveal that the suite, while varying in length from night to night, kept to this structure throughout the tour, and usually clocked in between 20 and 30 minutes.
The longest version to my knowledge was Eindhoven 1999 (or was it the 1998 show), where they jammed it out to about 45 minutes. Someone please correct/confirm me here.
Un Chien / K9 has been brought back during most tours, although not every tour. Still, every lineup of the band since the songs conception has made its take on it. Most often the song will be jammed out in a similar way each night of each tour, so that the versions are pretty much alike inside a tour, while they might differ greatly from tour to tour. Still no version is of course the same, its still a huge jam. The 2006 tour with Jacco on drums sometimes saw jams showing up in other places than usual, for instance during the intro and/or the outro, and there was a tour with Kenneth when the song differed in jam approach from night to night.
To my knowledge has it only happened a few times that they didn't play the whole song. First time was in Halden 2000, when Bent, after a mind blowing jam that took them through Sun Ra's "We Travel the Spaceways", broke a string on the 12-string guitar just as they were returning to the last verse. Bent swiftly changed his guitar, they omitted the last verse and the ending, and continued seamlessly into Upstairs/Downstairs. Magic! They tried to recreate the magic later on that tour (where/when?), but afterwards the song was brought back to its full form and has stayed that way since.
The deluxe edition of Angels & Daemons at Play contains three versions of Un Chien d'Espace, from it's birth, to the album version to the classic live version of the 1997 tour. RW1 contains the 1998 K9 version. After that it has been referred to as both Un Chien and K9.
https://www.stickman-records.com/shop/motorpsycho-angels-and-daemons-at-play-6cd-box-set/
Hi Punj Lizard, welcome! Oh, how I envy you discovering MP now. To stumble upon such a treasure, it doesn't happen too often these days, not to me, al least. I mostly lurk around here, but I want to point you in direction of the officially released live recordings before you seek out the soundboards (not too many of them), the radio recordings (luckily there are a handful of great ones) and the audience recordings (there are 100s, and at least a couple from each tour will be worth your time.
Since your oldest record is Trust Us, you should start with Roadwork 1, which was recorded on that tour, and which – in my book – is another cornerstone of their catalogue. Here you get a fantastic glimpse of the live magic.
Another live classic is Oslo Rockefeller March 14th 1997, a radio recording that circulated among the traders for 20 years, before finally being released in its entirety as part of the Angels and Daemons at Play Boxset.
You also have the DVD "Haircuts", which contains a recording from Amsterdam 2002. Also a great, great release.
When you work your way further back in their catalogue, you will find live recordings shattered throughout, beginning with a show from 1993 in the Demon Box boxset, and also a far out jazz experiment on Roadwork 2, from a show in 1995.
Let me know, and I'll try to assemble the radio recordings list next time, unless someone else has that list at hand and will post it for me.
Enjoy!
Thank you Akane for pointing out the recording, and Un.Chien.d.Espace for the alternative download link. Indeed a good find, must have been intimate in there, judging by the acoustics of the recording.
Tomcat: Thanks, looking forward to meeting you again too. Mefisto: Just getting old, I guess. Or at least in a different state of mind. Yes, hope we meet again next tour!
Oakej: Funny anecdote! Do we know each other?
Latest additions/updates:
30.07.2011 – MÃ¥nefestivalen, Fredrikstad (NOR) http://maanefestivalen.com/
19.08.2011 – Parkenfestivalen, Bodø (NOR) (Date confirmed) http://www.facebook.com/pages/Parkenfestivalen-offisiell-facebookside/355840609070?sk=wall
Updated:
13.04.2011 – Bilbao, Azkena (ES) + Two Cow Garage
14.04.2011 – Barcelona, Rocksound (ES)
15.04.2011 – Murcia, 12 & Medio (ES)
16.04.2011 – Madrid, El Sol (ES) + Moongardening Inc.
03.05.2011 – Helsinki, Tavastia Club (FIN) + Master Musicians of Bukkake
04.05.2011 – Tampere, Klubi (FIN) + Goathound
25.06.2011 – Steinkjerfestivalen, Steinkjer (NOR)
09.07.2011 – Kongsberg Jazzfestival, Kongsberg (NOR) + Primus
14.07.2011 – Burg Herzberg Festival, Breitenbach (GER)
15.07.2011 – Sonnenrot Festival, Eching bei München (GER)
30.07.2011 – MÃ¥nefestivalen, Fredrikstad (NOR)
19.08.2011 – Parkenfestivalen, Bodø (NOR)
02./03.09.2011 – Verket Music Festival, Mo i Rana (NOR)
