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@marc Traditionally it has been everything from 120-30 minutes before the show, with slight adjustments made even closer. Things taken into consideration apart from what they want to play are physical/mental states, equipment, the soundcheck, site specific whims, and veeeery occasionally dedications and requests (such as Bjørn at Blitz getting “The Wheel”).
(2/2) The upswing came quickly with a FANTASTIC “Psychotzar.” Wow. An unexpected highlight. And it was a massive kick to hear Olaf rule such a heavy landscape. Great twin work between Snah and Reine too. I just loved this version. The joy continued with “577,” which grew to near-ecstatic heights midway through. I would’ve liked even more fierceness from Snah here (he was brilliant nonetheless), but Reine’s spacey synth work was perfect, and by the end the whole band had that classic “melt”-feeling they get when they’re really in sync.
“The Nerve Tattoo” is by no means easy to pull off well, but I think they managed it tonight. Reine was amazing again on both guitar and keys, and Olaf threw himself into it with tons of energy, which lifted the song. The ending kicked ass (as it usually does), but this version was definitely on the plus side overall. Why they then barreled straight into “Hyena,” and even ended the main set with it, I have no explanation for. They’ve done some small, smart tweaks to it, which at least I think made it less grating, but it’s still pretty meh live (as it always has been, imho) – kind of like “Kill Some Day” without the shoegaze vibe.
“Elysium, Soon” wasn’t exactly a great first encore either. It felt a bit “flatlined,” and the fantastic Snah solo midway couldn’t quite lift the overall impression for me. Going from earlier shows on the tour, I would’ve preferred “A.S.F.E.”. But I have to say that “Core Memory Corrupt” was another boost. Way, way more intense than on the album, and played with buckets of energy. Snah was running out of power vocally going into “Gullible’s Travails,” but it was worth trudging through the verses for that gorgeous psych-out in the middle. Tasteful and musical drumming from Olaf again, Reine was the spacemaster on keys, Bent a machine on bass, and Snah in classic God-mode. These are the most engaging Gullible’s ever imho.
And then it was over, and I wandered out into the Oslo night with a good feeling in my chest. I wouldn’t call it a magical concert, but it was very, very uplifting. Not only was it miles better than Rockefeller 2023, but the band feeling was present, and Olaf deserves a lot of the credit for that tonight.
@suntripper Thanks for the heads up! I’ve tried to post several times without success lately – probably because my posts are way too long (I’m rambling too much)…
But I’ll try a repost and split it in two. Wrote most of this when I came home, then fell asleep while writing, then added a few more comments…
(1/2) “A real lift and a relief” could be a headline for me. After already having extremely low expectations for this tour, the recordings that have been shared so far only served to dampen them even further – especially on the drum front. I think Olaf has lacked flow and consistency, stiffened up during jam sections, lost momentum in the build-ups, and since he doesn’t have the energy of Ingvald, the passion of Geb, the playful wildness of Kenneth, or the next-level genius of Tomas, he has ended up – during the earliest leg of this tour – in a slightly pedestrian space between Killer and Jacco, even though he’s undoubtedly a better drummer than either of those two. Maybe the sheer responsibility and challenge of this gig has made him somewhat temporarily “scared shitless” (to quote Bent at Roskilde ’93)?
That’s why it was such a big and pleasant surprise for me to see him do a truly respectable job tonight. He played like he had something to prove, and both energy- and groove-wise, it was often genuinely good. Granted, the insane micro-dynamics the band had with Tomas are gone. And for some (myself included), that’s harder to let go of than for others. But I’m glad to see that people on the forum have been so positive about Ingvald and Olaf, because having the nauts behind you is important – especially during transitional phases like now. And tonight I think Olaf deserves the praise he’s been given.
I also think we got lucky with the setlist – considering the tour so far. It was nice to avoid “Lady May” and “Neotzar,” which just absolutely haven’t worked imho.
“Three Frightened Monkeys” and “The Quick Fix” was a pretty lovely opening, and Olaf was very solid here, with some energetic fills. Both Bent and Snah were vocally on the plus side tonight, and Bent’s bass playing was divine from the start. Reine worked hard to dial in his volume, and there was a lot of signaling on stage – also from Bent and Snah – so it probably took a while to get the onstage sound right. The front-of-house mix improved steadily throughout the show – minus Olaf’s nearly inaudible bass drum(s). The audience was friendly and responsive, with jazz-style cheering after every solo in “Whip That Ghost,” which was, by the way, far better than in 2023. “W.C.A.” may have been better than on the album, but for me it’s just the definition of filler – also live. “Balthazaar,” on the other hand, was an early highlight – as it has been earlier on the tour. Hypnotic, krauty, and cool.
I don’t think any drummer since Geb has played “Manmower” well, and tonight’s version was also weakened by Olaf’s rather sloppy overplaying on the cymbals, which he unfortunately tends to do during the quieter and more “jazzy” sections in general (not that there were that many of those tonight). It feels like he zones out. I agree with @toresan that the twin guitars on “Lucifer” were killer. And once again, Olaf was more solid in the build-up than earlier in the tour, and that gave it a good hypno/motorik vibe. “Mountain” was rock solid, and it felt fresh to place it here in the set. I love that Reine plays guitar and not keys on this one. Bent was absolutely fantastic on bass, raw vocals from Snah, and Olaf completely on point. Beautiful!
Then it dipped a bit for me with “Stanley,” which I maybe just don’t connect with (yet), and “Kill Some Day” (they also played that at the soundcheck with much more brutal screaming from Bent), which was a decent enough version, but pretty far down the list of old songs I want to hear again. “Patterns” once again had a lovely solo from Snah, although the rest of the version was just OK.
@otherdemon You forgot X-3?
Hey, just wanted to say sorry for my endless “Psychonaut”-requests over the past 25 years. Today it actually happened, and I’m over the moon!!!
@otherdemon: Agree that 4 covers is a bit much, and my Ultimate Dream-set would probably be a combination of the A’s and B’s, but 50 minutes is just way too short regardless. I’ve been wondering too if they will take the festival profiles into consideration. If that’s the case, I suppose Tons of Rock has a stronger identity than say Bergenfest, Bukta and Månefestivalen. Maybe they will “rebel” by bringing a banjo and play the acoustic Wheel for 50 minutes.
@suntripper: Thanks for playing! I think we were on the same logic wavelength there. Although your set is too long for ToR, it could apply to other dates this summer. “Walking on the Water” would be nice to hear again, although it should always go > BTC. :D
@Darmok: it’s a Killer B for sure! Agree with @suntripper that the Trezzo ’09-version is fantastic.
@pfft: Wouldn’t want that to be shorter than 10 mins… We’d need some Neil Young-action from Snah there.
@Johnny_Heartfield: Agree with your assessment re: the singles project, but “The House At Pooneil Corners” would indeed be amazing.
I’ve had some fun making some 50-minute setlists. There’s my sweet dream of A-sides/video singles – which will never happen (and “Home Of The Brave” is stretching it, but it was a live single in Japan), there’s a killer set of B-sides (which in some ways would be more exciting than the A’s), there’s my worst nightmare, and then there’s my best guess, which is a predictable “lowest odds”-setlist:
50 minutes: Sweet Dream
Home Of The Brave
Ozone
> Starmelt / Lovelight
Serpentine
The Quick Fix
Sideway Spiral II
> Grinder
> Politician
Psychonaut50 minutes: Killer B’s
Up Our Sleeves
Loaded
> I.C.U. (Boinganoid)
Fleshharrower (feat. Deathprod)
Silver Dollar Forger
KR-3 [Parts 1+2]
> Sterling Says
The House At Pooneil Corners
> Black To Comm50 minutes: Worst Nightmare
The Slow Phase Out
Toys
Walkin’ With J
> Go To California
Wearing Yr Smell
Another Ugly Tune
Shock Me
Now It’s Time To Skate
> X-mastime Is Here50 Minutes: Lowest Odds
The Nerve Tattoo
Go To California
Starmelt / Lovelight
Hyena
Psycholab
The Other Fool
Hey, Jane
Nothing To Say
> Into The SunWhat are yours? :)
50 minutes early in the afternoon? That’s a joke. I’ve had a little hope that they would finally play “Psychonaut” again (which I’ve been dreaming of seeing for 25 years), since it’s been released as a 7″ – and is included on both of their latest compilations, so I bought a ticket, but the question is whether they will devote 10 (?) minutes of this set to it. Probably not.
I also wonder (as has been discussed earlier in the thread) what really counts as “singles” here. Are A-sides on EPs included? If so, there are about 40 songs to choose from, and almost 50 if you include songs that are “video singles”.
Of these, only 4 have been played so far this year afaik. It’s also quite possible that MP will distribute the singles throughout the summer setlists, and if they do play “Psychonaut,” it’s unlikely to be in Oslo (according to my luck). :(
“Real Again” is a fine opener, and the lyrics feel poignant and moving – as does “Mad Sun”, played ’93-style here. Bent was in decent voice for third gig in a row, and there were several fun quips between the acoustic numbers, such as “We would advice you all to sit down”, “Old non-hits become new again” and “We’re not entirely professional”. “Can’t Find My Way Home” is a beautiful song (I absolutely love the Swans-version), but didn’t quite evoke the magic of MP’s acoustic takes on “Nature’s Way” or “All Tomorrow’s Parties”. Both Olaf and Reine did fine though, although Reine’s mix was a bit erratic. “Big Surprise” had some nice singing from the crowd too, but as a whole the acoustic section was pleasant at best.
When the full band finally kicked in, “Sinful, Wind-Borne” lacked all of the laser-focus and sharp corners of Geb’s, Tomas’ and even Kenneth’s drumming on that track. Olaf is much more of a “groover” and not a “slicer”, which made it feel mushy and overly soft. All of the Yay!-tracks were very well suited for his style, though, and Snah’s exceptional soloing in “Hotel Daedalus” was the first highlight of the concert. At 40 minutes+ in, that came a bit on the late side, but it was a huge relief. Psychoverse unlocked.
On “Black As Night” they sounded like a well-oiled band, but nothing more either. It was just a decent version of a decent track, and they didn’t sprinkle any fairy dust on it. C&B > WTG was a very enjoyable section though, and actually reached one or two quite cool momentums, with very fine and playful drumming from Olaf, beautiful soloing from Snah, and Bent being hypnotic.
Reine was an excellent vibe-master as ever on both keys and guitar, but was frequently a bit low in the mix, such as in an otherwise very good “Patterns”, and particularly “The Nerve Tattoo”, where he was nearly inaudible. “Patterns” was a stand-out though, thanks to an absolutely stunning Snah-solo, where I thought Olaf was almost perfectly complimentary on the drums, playing with and against both Bent and Snah like he’d been in the band for years. A real goosebumps-moment, and I don’t think any drummer could have done that better. Following the positive thread, “Gullible’s Travails” used to bore me – even with Kenneth being the mad octopus on drums/mellotron, but this much simplified version was quite stellar, and Pt. III went from very pleasantly psychedelic with both Snah and Reine spacing out on keys before Snah went back to the guitar and took it to supersonic awesomeness, topped with Bent shaking the room with the Taurus before the transition to Pt. IV. Suuuper cool, and the sort of moment you always hope to get watching MP. YES (or YAY)!
Putting the otherwise quite mediocre “Sentinels” this late in the set wasn’t necessary a bad decision either. They brought over some of the space from Gullible’s, and it sounded breezy, pleasant and fluent, much thanks to Olaf’s tasteful drumming. “The Nerve Tattoo” was way, way off, though. Reine was something like 40dB too low in the mix, and Olaf was just not driving the band at all with his lanky bass-drumming during the verses. Yikes! Überwagner didn’t truly click either, although it was slightly better. Bent and Olaf didn’t totally gel during “The Visitant” either, although that was lifted by some great soloing from both Reine and Snah, and I got the sense that Olaf hanging by a thread in much of this final section. “Plan #1” had a particularly massive guitar sound from Snah, but Olaf seemed very lost here, with a host of inexplicable and lousy fills, coupled with some sloppy transitions that broke momentum.
They came back for “A.S.F.E.” and “Rock Bottom”, and I’m particularly glad that they did the former, because after a decent to average first five minutes, they FINALLY took off into Psychoverse again with some absolutely mind melting, thunderous attack from Snah – quite reminiscent of the Hamar “577”-noiseout, which was topped with wah wah after a few rounds. Another huge relief, highlight, and a seriously, seriously great space rock-moment. They only brought some, but not much of that momentum over to “Rock Bottom”, though. It was an average version of a pretty cool/fun closer.
So imho, there were about five truly great moments in the concert, coupled with a lot of transportation legs, but not a lot of dead air either. Much like the Yay!-album, it felt spirited, playful and wholesome, and often moving, while only very occasionally catching fire.
(Repost in two parts, because my original post disappeared)
It’s a couple of days after the first Rockefeller-show MP have played since 2016, which was the Here Be Monsters-tour with Kenneth (that somehow feels longer than 7 years ago). At the time that felt like a substantial return to form after the lackluster 2014 Behind the Sun-show. In 2014 they opened with EIGHT acoustic numbers. Tonight they stopped at five – including “Big Surprise”, which was also played here in 2014 – and 2016 (electric).
Upon seeing that Olaf Olsen was drafted in for the tour, every psychonaut instinctively knew that this would be the Let Them Eat Yay!-tour. And that’s what it is. I don’t know how many people are genuinely excited about that, but to be both fair and realistic, most of the the last couple of tours – especially 2017-2019 and 2022 have been so stunning that they’ve frequently hit all time-peaks. You can’t achieve that level of telepathy with just a few weeks of rehearsal, regardless of how good your new drummer is. And teaching Olaf the N.O.X.-suite wouldn’t be playing to his strengths either. That being said – they have taught him the full “Gullible’s Travails”, so he is getting his prog hat on at times. More on that later.
Given the circumstances, I think we should cut both the band and Olaf aeons of slack. And Olaf is far from an illogical or bad choice. When Geb left, he was one of the Norwegian drummers I initially thought would have been plausible. I first saw him in February 2000, playing a small club with Bigbang on one of the final Electric Psalmbook-dates. I thought he was fantastic, and had a combination of Krupa/Mitchell-style swiftness on the toms combined with a Hayward-like pocket and heaps of punk-energy that was just killer and very unique. He instantly became a favourite of mine. Greni’s daft lyrics didn’t matter either, because he was jumping around and hanging from the rafters. It was awesome.
And 23 year on, if Saturday did not feature the very same Gretsch-kit Olaf used back then, it was at least extremely similar. It’s not only a smaller kit, but drier/woodier than Tomas’ (birch vs. maple perhaps), and Olaf also uses a smaller crashride to his left than both Kenneth and Tomas, which puts a lot of fast energy into the cymbalwash, reminiscent of both Geb and Jacco, but with less force on the snare than Geb, making the balance (loud crashride + soft/dynamic snare) sound a bit peculiar and unfamiliar in MP. A case in point from Saturday was “Whip That Ghost”, where so much emphasis was put on the snare as a driving element by Geb, that Olaf’s take almost felt inverted, with the cymbals being the backbone of the beat, and the snare taking more of an accent-role. I think it’s fair to suspect that he is holding a bit back from uncertainty on top of this as well, and putting a lot of energy in the cymbals while holding the snare back certainly makes him less susceptible to major fuck-ups, and more flexible when it comes to cues from the others.
Rockefeller was packed, and there was a quite friendly and politely cheerful mood in the room before the gig, which sort of stayed all the way through. My expectations were extremely low by MP-standards, with my only reference points being the Hamar-recording and the setlists from the other shows. But I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would, although I would agree with @otherdemon that it was a mixed bag.
Thanks for posting the full setlist, @Wulf, and sorry for double-posting, but I’ve added timings (just the songs without the pauses/banter) for those interested:
Real Again (Norway Shrugs and Stays At Home) (3:10)
Mad Sun (4:37)
Upstairs-Downstairs (4:53)
Can’t Find My Way Home (Blind Faith cover) (3:52)
Big Surprise (4:15)
Sinful, Wind-Borne (5:03)
Dank State (5:08)
Hotel Daedalus (6:31)
Black As Night (The Frost cover) (5:29)
Cold & Bored (4:04)
> Whip That Ghost (11:06)
Patterns (5:27)
Gullible’s Travails (Pt. I-IV) (17:29)
Sentinels (6:24)
The Nerve Tattoo (4:19)
> Überwagner or a Billion Bubbles in My Mind (4:06)
> The Pilgrim (Wishbone Ash cover) (6:01)
Plan #1 (7:23)
—
A.S.F.E. (6:57)
Rock Bottom (UFO cover) (7:27)Total: 2h 18m (21:30-23:48)
This album is not for me, but I totally get and respect the move. The music (while unexciting) feels very sincere, and I really, really like Bent’s lyrics, and find many of them both relatable and moving. Very human, direct but nuanced. I’ll probaby read those way more than I’ll listen to this record. “Patterns” is imho their best pop-single since “In Our Tree” – or possibly “Serpentine”. But also one of only two songs I liked here, the other being “Real Again”. I’ll try some more though, and will go see the Oslo-concert.
Musically, second to third gear is what I expected – and got. Pleasantly boring perhaps, but it has a very sympathetic and open vibe that makes it less irritating and grating than Let Them Eat Cake/Phanerothyme. So yeah, no WTF here. More like a warm hug and a thanks for continuing to make the music you want when you want it!
PS: Have it first-hand that Snah has been into The Verve lately. Don’t know if that made any impact on the last two records (perhaps “Chariot of the Sun” and some of the light/shoegazy moments on Yay!?), but found it a bit interesting nonetheless. The bass-riff in “The Wheel” is quite reminiscent of “A Man Called Sun”, but Snah hasn’t listened to them before now at least.
Setlist:
Ulv! Ulv!
Feel
Can’t Find My Way Home (Blind Faith cover)
A Pacific Sonata
Lady May
Laird Of Heimly
Like Chrome
SunchildInfo: Acoustic w/Bent + Snah
(Edit: Sorry, just saw that you posted the setlist in the other thread, @Faust)
