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I was surprised (and happy) to see Reine there. Saw him thursday in a bar in Trondheim (he was still there when I left).
[Update – see Anders' set below]
Highlights were "Intrepid Explorer" (a personal live-favourite), "Heartattack Mac" (mind-blowing – MUCH better than at Konserthuset, and "Back To Source" had a fantastic and quite melodic psych-jam), "Ship Of Fools" (just incredible energy) and "Taifun" (insanely good – absolutely God-like). I'm also glad they played "A Pacific Sonata" – one of my favourites from The Tower.
All three nights were filmed, so there is a chance for «Fleshharrower» AND «Home of the Brave» (!). That would be a dream. I used to be angry at myself for not filming more at Slottsfjell, but now I’ll be able to watch MP play «Gutwrench» on blu-ray! What a gift!
Woah…! Amazing setlist! Easily the best of the tour so far. I get goosebumps from just looking at it…
@otherdemon, well spotted! I was typing on my phone on the way home, and it went a bit fast. Updated the post.
HBM was supposed to end set 2, with "Feel" being a possible encore, but they changed that around.
Re: "Hell, Part 1-3", I don't normally disagree with you on a lot of things, but that was by far the biggest (positive) surprise of the show for me. I never cared for it before (to put it mildly), either on the record or live, but tonight it was astounding imho.
The setlist might not look super-exciting on paper, but it worked so well in the context of Konserthuset, with the room and the seated audience, set 1 in particular had an excellent flow to it. I passed a guy with a t-shirt that read "Do The Epic Stuff", and they definitely did. I suppose one man's "wall of sound" is another man's psychedelic heaven, or maybe you were unlucky with the sound. The sound was really good in the middle of row 9 where I sat, save from the drums. The snare in particular was drowning quite a bit. I also got the impression that Tomas struggled a bit with the monitor. He did signal as much at one point during set 2, and he wasn't totally in sync with Bent during the build-up in Un Chien (an otherwise AMAZING K9 style "Faster / Rounder"-section).
Highlights for me: "Un Chien", "Intrepid Explorer" (WOW), "Heartattack Mac", "Hell", the ending of "Ship Of Fools", the mid-part of "Here Be Monsters". I agree that the opening of HBM was better at RF16, but the middle was super-intense here, and Tomas sitting down between Bent and Snah at the end was a beautiful moment. "Manmower" was also better here than RF16.
Posting the real setlist here to avoid confusion:
Set 1: (20:30 – 21:40)
The Tower
In Every Dream Home
The Cuckoo
Upstairs / Downstairs
Cloudwalker
Hell, Part 1-3
Un Chien d'Espace (30 mins)
Set 2: (22:12 – 23:35)
Manmower
Intrepid Explorer
Bartok Of The Universe
Heartattack Mac
Lacuna / Sunrise
Ship Of Fools
Feel
—
Here Be Monsters
TOTAL: 2h 43m (+ 22m pause between sets)
Lorentz, thank you so much for sharing the story. That is amazing, and almost unbelievable that NRK couldn't supply you with a recording of it afterwards. I’m glad that you finally got to see it.
It is definitely a superb performance, with an epic ending – much thanks to your and OHM's contributions, although I can totally understand that you were thrown off a bit by the rather reserved audience. I didn't know about your live work with Seigmen either. Would be really cool to see or hear a recording of that. Although the viola has been in its flight case for the past 20 years, it certainly has an eventful legacy. Hope you will pick it up again at some point!
If you'd like a digital copy of the Wiese remaster, just drop me a line at starmelts@gmail.com, and I’ll send you the video + a WAV.
Chris
knoot: The version on NRK has the annoying letterbox, as well as inferior sound and slightly brighter, more washed out colours than this remaster. It's certainly cool that NRK are expanding their online archive, though. Who knows what other MP treasures they might dig up in the future.
I think that the ending in this version is particularly great. Love the violins (OHM + ?) + Deathprod. in full force.
MP came to Rockefeller Saturday with a surprisingly similar setlist to the show in Skien. The first 11 (!) songs were the same. It wasn't until "Superstooge" (my first since 2002) kicked in – wrong bass and all – that we got a change. Instead of "Hell", we also got "Upstairs/Downstairs" and "Cloudwalker (A Darker Blue)" before "Manmower", and the "Big Black Dog"/"Here Be Monsters" finale. We can only speculate why, but one possibility is that they wanted to have a well-oiled set for today's taping. Yes, the show was pro-shot, and the audience was informed by the entrance that the gig would be filmed. Footage from the camera at the first gallery + soundboard audio was streamed live to a big screen by the merch table. It looked stunning with the new backdrop. I could occasionally spot a camera-guy by the first row downstairs too.
I thought I was going to be smart and buy the limited 12" early, but it was sold out 10 minutes into the show. I queued up for 15 minutes (with the whole line rocking out to "S. T. G."),, but just missed out on one. When Bent introduced HBM, and said that it was available at the merch stand, many people shouted "NOOO! SOLD OUT!", which made Bent smile and make a comment to Kenneth.
Snah played a particularly good show imho, and seemed very energised by the new material. The set-up with the mellotrons and pedals looked and sounded very cool, but kept Bent and Snah very busy, and there were some "rough around the edges" moments. And yes, Bent messed up the beginning of "Superstooge" (which rules, btw). That didn't detract from the concert as a whole, though. It was very, very good. Bent was in fine voice, save for breaking up completely during the first line of "Whole Lotta Diana" (that definitely didn't seem intentional). I agree that "Manmower" was a bit of a low-point, with Kenneth being the main offender. His feel was just too loose and sloppy during the verses, and it sounded almost ironic. He played an otherwise excellent show, though. As for "Big Black Dog", while the song itself might not be an all-time-favourite, the lead-out riff at the very end is imho a classic MP riff (I LOVE Bent's bass-line) that could almost reach Golden Core-heights, had they settled into a beat at some point. They stayed in the hurricane, but just hearing that part played was a huge highlight for me, and it was SO much better than the record, as was the heavy version of "Spin, Spin, Spin". "S. T. G." Is a great choice for second track. I thought "I. M. S." worked well too, and "Lacuna/Sunrise" was open and beautiful. Bent's bass-lines on the new tracks are brilliant, and have to be experienced live.
"Feedtime" was great (very stoked that they've kept playing it), and I filmed that one and the entire 25-minute "Here Be Monsters". I for one loved to see Snah and Bent build those layers of sound, although there were some hiccups – which again leads me to think that Bob LeBad might not see this entire gig fit for release. We'll see about that, but I enjoyed it a lot. Would I have traded "Upstairs/Downstairs", "Cloudwalker" (which was excellent) AND "Manmower" for "Psychonaut" alone? Of course, but as it happened the concert really fit my mood that day, and it was a great experience overall.
Go see this tour, it can only get better!
