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@otherdemon: Ha, I felt like I was the only person who loved "The Mirror And The Lie" when it came out. It was slaughtered here, iirc (called "pretentious" and whatnot), and nobody seemed to think it was anything above okay. To me, it was and still is an absolutely beautiful track – lyrically and musically. Best track on IALC, and the absolute antithesis to throwaway stuff such as "Neverland" and the aforementioned "What If…".
I enjoyed it live too, but felt it was a missed opportunity not to elaborate on the final part. I felt – and feel the same about the glorious mid-part in "Big Black Dog" too. I wish they could eventually glue themselves to it Golden Core-style, but instead the drums in particular just hover around it, creating wonderful tension, but no release. That is the point obviously. But frustrating nonetheless. In the case of TMATL, the thought of that final part with steady drums + heavy tractor-bass, and Baard taking care of the subtleties… The mind boggles.
PS: Glad to have you onboard for Chien, The Wheel and TGC.
Masterpiece? Well, there you go. It's amazing how this band manages to tie in all sorts of preferences. It reminds me of an interview I read with Daniel Miller of Mute Records, where he said something along the lines of "I'm probably the only person in the world who likes every single record on the label."
Whenever I badmouth the 2000-2002 era I'm quick to add that I have a lot of respect for what they did, which was being progressive, challenging themselves, and pushing themselves to the very limits of their capabilities as players, arrangers and singers – without the net of fuzz and feedback. It was a brave move.
"What If…" wasn't played a lot, iirc. But the studio version shouldn't be too hard to top.
Woah… It goes to show how different we perceive things. I think The Golden Core and Un Chien are both total bliss live. And the Øya-Wheel (2010 – not the horrible 2006) ate the album version for breakfast imho. And how about those long, beautiful '95-versions? Or the Super/Wheels of 98/99?
Gullible's Travails, on the other hand, came to mind for me too as not translating too well in concert. Of the more "songy"-tracks, Little Ricky Massenburg was maybe not a great song to begin with, but it was even worse live, as was When You're Dead. I'm not a fan of that era in general, but I'd be interested to hear from fans of LTEC/Phanerothyme/IALC how you felt those tracks worked live in comparison to the studio versions, because of the stricter arrangements. They stretched out on tracks such as Go To Cal and Whip That Ghost, but maybe some of you prefer that strictness, whereas I just felt that the whole MP-machinery was held/forced back.
@The Other Anders, I'm glad you stand up for the things you like, and recordings can change perspectives either way, which is exciting in itself. I haven't heard the recording, but I wouldn't be surprised if I'd pick up things I didn't at the actual show, which save for the fact that they were tired and had technical problems, had many factors going against it that were of no fault of the band. The sound and general 'vibe' downstairs (I was row 3 or 4 slightly to the right)? Ugh. The "Cuckoo" you mentioned was killed by that for me. I wonder where Lars M was stationed. Agreed about Lars' contributions.
Re: Manpower-jams – I think I prefer Thomas' approach to the last one I saw with Kenneth in particular, which I remember felt almost ironic. There's such a fine line between playful and… But yes, I'm not one to complain about jamming at all. I'm soooo relieved that the yacht-pop phase is over (for now).
That being said, I don't particularly enjoy the RW V version of Manmower (save for the final magical minute), but it's well played (of course), and I enjoy watching it. It's just down to personal taste. The clear highlight for me on that album (which is good overall, and the sound is brilliant) is Taifun, which is godly, and I also really like the Köln intro to Un Chien (a bit too much Kristoffer on the 'faster we go'-bit in the main song though imho). RW III still sucks in my book save for Hogwash and STG + a decent Starmelt/Lovelight.
But I'm so grateful for everything they give. We're all spoilt with too much goodness from this fantastic band.
"When we started Motorpsycho, we wanted to sound like a cross between Hawkwind and Sonic Youth." – Bent Sæther, 1995 (Beat)
Hawkwind is such an integral part of the MP DNA. One of their least hidden references. As well as praising them openly in interviews, and putting the quote "Into the void we have to travel" in the Blissard cover, they have also borrowed a lot from them musically. And it's not just Lemmy's bass playing, but the whole heavy psychedelic/space rock-vibe in general, which was there from the beginning. Whether that is balanced out with metal/indie/lo-fi/folk/prog or baroque pop differ from record to record, but save for Let Them Eat Cake and Phanerothyme, I can locate some traces of Hawkwind in almost their entire catalogue. Our national anthem "Psychonaut" is pretty much a Hawkwind orgy, as is "Back To Source" and "K9". Demon Box alone has "All Is Loneliness", "Tuesday Morning" and "Step Inside Again"… The list goes on.
As well as "Master Of The Universe", MP also covered "You Shouldn't Do That" in 1993, and on Roadwork Vol. 1, during the transition from "Superstooge" to "The Wheel", Bent briefly plays some lines from that main riff from ca. 6:23 onwards.
(Wrote this a few hours after the gig, but didn't post it for some reason – possibly because I felt it was overly negative. Read it again now, and thought it was pretty fair, so I'll post it. We have a lot to look forward to, so it's not like we're getting stuck on this one show anyway.)
Back from Union, and a way below average concert imho, although if you just look at the setlist (which is one of the best of 2018), you would assume it would have to be excellent. But as we all know, in the MP-universe the setlist is first and foremost a map.
Positives: The clear highlight was The Wheel in its entirety. It was absolutely amazing! So grateful I got to experience that again, and totally worth the trip. Other personal highlights were the lift-off in Taifun, Dream Home’s extended jam, a solid Plan #1, and the final jam in The Tower. I’d also add Lars to the highlights. He is such a versatile musician, and did a really good job.
But the band seemed tired from the get go. The fire was there at times, but rarely for long, and hardly ever at the amazing levels we’ve seen earlier this tour. Snah had problems with one of his Hiwatt amps too, and spent half of SOF messing about with it. The sound was also very underwhelming downstairs for the first hour in particular. Very digital sounding vocals (too processed), and an unbalanced mix. It really harmed the psychedelic vibe the band went for, and some of the rockier numbers fell totally flat too, Cuckoo and Bartok in particular. Upstairs/Downstairs went nowhere, and I felt that they generally lost the momentum more frequently today than I’ve seen for quite some time. Lacuna got a good response from the crowd, and was good, but never really magical imho. STG was cool, and I’m glad Punj Lizard got to see it. It was a decent, but not great version (the ending wasn’t as ecstatic as usual), and they just didn’t have that sort of manic energy tonight to really nail it. Thomas did add some interesting accents, though.
There seemed to be quite a number of seasoned psychonauts in the audience, and many MP-shirts and hoodies on display, but the crowd seemed to get easily restless and unfocused, with loads of moving about and heading back and forth to the bar. Electric mood during The Wheel and Plan #1, with a good singalong on the latter, but Manmower didn't get much of a response as a first encore. Maybe if they'd put it in the main set and saved STG for the first encore, the place would have erupted, but it would hardly have saved the gig as a whole, which was sub-par.
I would probably have cried with joy if that (Pooneil) happened, but yes, extremely unlikely. «The Wheel» and «Taifun» seems possible, though. And maybe a first «S.T.G.» for Punj Lizard? Regardless, I’m ready for some amplifier worship tonight, to put it in Boris’ words.
@Punj Lizard, I've been following your beautiful transition into a full blown psychonaut, and I'm so glad you got to experience "The Wheel". I believe you've already been K9'ed, so now I just dearly hope that you get to experience "The Golden Core", "Vortex Surfer" and "Plan #1" (in order of importance). Sail on, my friend!
You're absolutely right, @supernaut. There is no "Step Inside Again"-part in this "Demon Box". Was it edited out (I don't have the boots to compare)? They did it at Slottsfjell, and I see it listed at setlist.fm too. Hm.
They also rearranged "All Is Loneliness" for the Rockheim-shows (as @otherdemon pointed out) – for the better imho. The Slottsfjell-version was closer to the album-version, but just didn't work as well that night.
@Flippern, I haven't compared it to anything at home, but it sounded absolutely majestic at Deichman. Performance-wise, it is stunning, bordering on ridiculously great at times. I already think that some – possibly many of these versions top their album counterparts.
Compared to Slottsfjell, I'd have to say that it is less energetic overall (especially the title track, which is almost meditative and beautiful here), but that doesn't matter, because this is much more musical. There aren't many big jams, because there just wouldn't be time for that. Some of the transitions, such as from "Tuesday Morning" to "All Is Loneliness" are incredible, but the performance is more about the focus and precision than the psychedelic twists and turns. The arrangements are quite conservative, but so tasteful. Everything feels very much thought through, and there isn't a sloppy moment to be found. They obviously knew they were being recorded, which I'm sure affected their playing for better (focus) or worse (energy), and the cameras are very present. Kenneth in particular addresses the cameras, and pulls faces several times.
The encores "Fleshharrower" and "Home of the Brave" have more of a Slottsfjell-edge to them, and are both big highlights for me.
I still can't believe this was actually released. Such a gift. I couldn't be happier, and can't recommend it highly enough!
@Halitosis, it is very possible that RW I & II were not remastered, and they may even have used the same lacquers as the original pressing(s). They could have made the vinyl mastering available digitally, of course, but that was never technically tailored for the digital domain, as opposed to the box sets, and getting Helge involved for that one extra track was likely considered a non-priority at this point. Maybe we'll see a RW digital box set sometime in the future?
