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Worrying news from Tønsberg. Two stages, including Kastellscenen (where MP is playing at 22:15) have had to be temporarily closed off because of strong wind. The festival is working on solutions, but it will cause a delay, and the wind is not expected to become better until tomorrow.
Update: A third stage (Campingvogna) is now closed too, and several concerts have been moved. No word yet about Motorpsycho. Further updates continually posted to Slottfjell's Facebook.
Update 2: Four concerts are now cancelled (Orango, Little Simz, Comet Kid and 1349).
Update 3: MP will apparently go forward 22:15!
Update 4: More drama. Horrible news. Weather worse. A new decision will be taken at 21:30. Fingers crossed…!!!
First show was the Unicorn (approx. 80 mins). No encore. Standing ovation. Lights were incredible. Sound was so-so (second row), but the performance was flawless. "Into the Gyre" (beautiful strings) and "La Lethe" + the ending of "Into the Mystic" (Snah in God-mode) were clear highlights for me. Also: I have never heard Bent sing better. He was fantastic. It was an Opera worthy indeed. Loads of cameras filming the set. More later (sending from the phone).
I have to say that this was a much better all round experience than I expected. I've never been to a gig at Sentrum with even remotely good sound, and while the sound was never great where I stood (middle of the ground floor, about five rows in), it did improve from the complete mush it was from "Out Of The Woods" through to "Doldrums" into something physically involving, and thus enjoyable. That being said – the sound of Bent and Snah's amps was absolutely fantastic, but the drums were more or less drowned out to the point of being a sloppy mess (which they actually weren't, as Kenneth seemed to be playing with loads of focus and passion). Maybe the sound was a whole lot better further back/higher up in the room?
The band were in very good form, under beautiful lights, clearly enjoying themselves, and playing with a lot of heart. A big plus was the vocal performance from Bent and Snah, which was excellent imho. The vocals were loud and clear where I stood, and I haven't heard them sing this well in years. Bent was also going for a few screams throughout, and nailed some really high notes during "La Lethe", which was the CLEAR highlight of the set! It was absolutely MASSIVE, and the biggest rush I've felt from any new song live since "The Alchemyst". It really was "The Wheel"-heavy, and was the jaw dropping moment where they really brought out the magic for me tonight.
The level of musicianship was obviously insane. Snah was definitely in God-mode, and while he did struggle with a few technical issues, his tone and feel was exceptional throughout. Bent did an amazing job at keeping everything together, while still being on top of all the impovs. Is there a finer bass player in the universe? I don't think so.
"Mutiny" was great (as expected), with some very tight and energetic jamming towards the end, and as otherdemon pointed out, "Into The Gyre" (which is also my favourite track on the record) was very, very good. Another highlight was Ståle's psychedelic synth-work during "Into The Mystic", where he almost sounded like Deathprod at times. If this was because of a keyboard failure (which I didn't catch), it was really for the better! He continued to impress me during "Gullible's Travails", which was about 50 times better than the Rockefeller-gig on the Heavy Metal Fruit tour. "III) Circle" was absolutely gorgeous, Floyd-ish psychedelia.
In some ways I agree with the posters from Trondheim who pointed out that "Gullible's" might not be what you really want to hear after 90 minutes of the Unicorn, but this version was so well played, that it felt more right than wrong. Very inspired. "Burn" was hysterical, but played with less irony than some might have hoped for. They absolutely nailed it, and it was a great display of how brilliantly shameless Motorpsycho can be when it comes to going "all out rock", and also a friendly reminder of how exciting that can be in itself when it's done at the lysergic energy level of a band like Motorpsycho. And although '74 Purple IS very hairy territory, it seemed fitting yesterday with Snah up there on stage looking like Ritchie Blackmore's cooler, younger brother, having just finished a progressive rock opera. There were people in the audience from various younger bands that would never in a million years admit to having liked a Deep Purple track (even in their childhood), fiercely banging their heads to "Burn". Snah didn't go for Hughes' high notes, but Bent did, and I was smiling all the way through the song.
The audience was generally very responsive and positive, but talkative, which was a bit disappointing, but not unexpected. A few people also seemed to walk out, and a guy right behind me was pointing out loudly just how dreadful it was, while his friend was trying to convince him (just as loudly) that it wasn't that dreadful. Still, it seemed to me that the band won over most of the sceptics, and Sentrum was shaking from all the people clapping and stomping their feet after the Unicorn/encores. The reception was in general much better than the lame Rockefeller audience on the last tour.
While the album itself doesn't make my personal top 10 out of MP's albums, it is way better than Heavy Metal Fruit imho, and also made for a much better live experience. I have to agree with Evol that the Unicorn was a hundred times better live – which much of their work is anyway, but this one to a larger extent than I was hoping for, and thus I am also hoping for a stripped down Roadwork. There were no cameras at Sentrum, as far as I could tell.
I love the fact that after 23 years, Motorpsycho is still an irresistible, colourful challenge that keeps expanding minds and inducing unprecedented sonic bliss. Looking forward to the Opera!
It will indeed be nice to hear both sides of the Unicorn – with and without the orchestra. i'm also curious about which songs they will choose to follow such a mammoth piece. If the orchestra is staying for the encores in the Opera, they might dust off "The Nerve Tattoo".
Quote:I think "PPP" was quite wonderful. Worked for meSweet! The full gig (2 hours, 33 minutes) is now up here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=57942C08E80D67D4
Maybe you can post the link on Motorgigs, Alex? :MPD:
Quote:If you don't mind, here are the other vids postedThat's totally cool, otherdemon. I already posted PPPP, but maybe it's better the second time around? :wink:
Quote:thanx for filming!My pleasure, Ivan! I finally got around to fix the audio in "Mountain / Nothing to Say" btw, and here it is:
Then there's "Whole Lotta Diana":
… And "Gullible's Travails (Pt I – IV)":
Don't forget to choose 720p HD! Only 3 songs left now…
I finally managed to get around to do 3 more videos from Rockefeller. While I'm eagerly awaiting for my first Mac to arrive next week, I'm still stuck on an old Acer laptop that doesn't approve of heavy video work (3-4 hours + per file), so that's why it takes so long. The response has really been surprisingly great, so thanks everybody! Both the recording and the gig itself is strangely enough growing on me – possibly thanks to that, and I promise to get the whole thing done eventually.
Here's "Starhammer (feat. The Electric Psalmon) / The Wheel", "Pills, Powders and Passionplays" and "Neanderthal":
Quote:Fantastic version of Close Your Eyes!! Thank you very much for filming and sharing. Love it!Thanks, Rune! Really glad you enjoy it!
Quote:Any chance you can post your version of "Neanderthal" too, Devotional? Liked that song a lot!Definitely. That's up next! Sorry it took so long.
Quote:Also the much debated, or rather dissed, "PPP" would be interesting to hear.Yes, I can include that in the next batch if you want. It takes ages to encode them on my terrible laptop, but I'll post them all eventually.
Quote:Devotional, did you already try to grab audios of your camera? Just had one of your clips through my TV and pretty much liked the good sound: astounding quality!Really? Wow, I never expected that response. The gig (unfortunately) doesn't appear to have been recorded by anyone else, so I guess I might make some FLAC's out of the sound, but bear in mind that the original source is too lossy to be shared on DIME (256 kbps AAC), so it would have to be through Motortrades. I'll happily make you a copy of the sound as soon as I'm finished with the videos.
Quote:Right, when playing in Tønsberg Bent said before they played Leslie's Vest that , this is a song we started on in 91 and rediscovered and finished in 2001.He also mentioned that it had another title and that could very well be "On A Plate".
Really interesting info there, but that's also just about the only thing that makes sense in this puzzle. Because…
Quote:Surely this song (On a Plate) is the same as the "Du du du du" thing from the London gig and NOT Leslie's Vest?Well… Yes, but we're going from Bent's setlist here, which clearly states "Leslie's Vest" as the second song. Maybe they're trying to confuse us on purpose?
Quote:I for one wouldn't mind a torrent with all the videos from this show – perhaps joined together into a home-made, multi-camera production.That would be nice. We'll see what other footage pops up, but I'm at least hoping for a better sound source.
Quote:It must have been one long moment of baffled-excitement for the beginning of "Close your Eyes", when you were not aware what they're doing there – don't we love it so much when they're doing this?!Exactly! At first I thought that maybe it was a rework of "Upstairs-Downstairs".
Quote:I must admit "Close your eyes" didn't really blow me away. Pretty doomy, yes, but not a towering psychedelic highlight — at least not on YouTube (cannot be compared to live anway).It certainly doesn't pack the same punch on video. The sound just doesn't do it justice. Thought of bringing a Zoom as well, but figured it would be too much hassle. And why, oh why doesn't NRK record concerts at Rockefeller anymore?
