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@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)
Just read about the gruesome attack, and just wanted to say that I’m grateful this thread (thanks Johnny and suntripper) managed to reach you, punknotyet. So good to hear from you, and to know that you’re OK! I can’t even begin to fathom what you’re going through at this very moment. Sending love and compassion from Oslo.
I’m devastated by the news.
Tomas’ drumming with MP has been so incredible. Like a dream, really. There have been some live peaks over the past years that have rivalled 1993/94 and 1997/98 in terms of intensity and magic. Save for 2020, which along with being a horrible year in general, had the worst setlists since 2001, ALL the other years since 2017 have had concerts that deserve “all-time classic” status. October/November 2017 had a whole host of them, November 2018, May 2019, the Blitz-run in November 2021… And I wouldn’t be surprised if we 20 years from now look back on the 2022 Cosmoctop! Over Europe-tour as their greatest ever in terms of musical elasticity.
Tomas made a dent in the Psychoverse and gave me a new emotional connection to the band. To me, he was the best of all worlds musically. He could play anything and make it sound urgent and vital. Sure, many drummers can “play” the songs, but after nearly 6 years in MP, Tomas had become them. I’m so grateful for everything he contributed, and will treasure the concerts I saw for the rest of my life.
It’s great that Bent and Snah just soldier on without missing a beat (pun intended), but what a loss…
HOME OF THE BRAVE
Wooooow!!! Please, please don’t let that be a one-off! I’m still kicking myself for not going to night 3 at Rockheim. There is still a ghost of a chance after all! And coming out of “Psychotzar”… All of those encores look like a total blast, to be fair. “Have Fun” is a super cool surprise too! But yeah, HOTB is the bee’s knees.
Happy for those who were at Byscenen. Hoping for more reports!
