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Setlist:
TDDU in its entirety (although most of the intermezzos were replaced by improvs)
Gullible's Travails
Burn (Deep Purple)
– Mixed feelings about this gig. Soundguy fucked up the obligatory first two songs by turning everything up to 11, leaving a big pointless wall of sound/noise (however it did improve from Into The Gyre and on). Later still loud, but a more balanced kind where one could actually hear the solos & shit.
– Some of the TDDU songs did not work well live imho. La Lethe became even more tedious when they deciced to extend the "3 minutes of banging one chord". And Sharks really suffered without the strings (as if Bent & Snah's vocal 'harmonies' can carry the song alone. LOL)
РThe guys were really into it! Not talkative at all, but very active on stage moving around. Some tech problems here & there, like Snah breaking a string on Oh, Proteus РA Prayer and St̴le's synth not working for the final solo on Into The Mystic. But they found alternate solutions :lol:
Highlights: Into The Gyre (amazing live!), Oh Proteus – A Prayer (extended with some awesome jamming!) and the encores which were played tight & right. A bit sad that they changed tuning for Mutiny! though.
Very good show, though the sound was a bit 'off' at times, and some annoying talkative audience didn't help. I disagree on la lethe being tedious though, to me it was the absolute highlight of the show!
Have to agree re: the sound issues. I was standing dead center, about 3 metres in front of the soundboard, and the sound was horrendous at times. There were long portions when I only knew what was going on because I know the record so well by now, I can only imagine what it was like for anyone not heavily into the last album. The low end frequencies in particular were really jarring to my ears.
Also, the "3 minutes" were indeed extended to 7+ minutes, which made La Lethe the least interesting/most annoying song of the concert.
NOw, from these comments it almost sounds like I hated it. I didn't; plenty of energy and liveliness from the stage, generally a good atmosphere in the crowd and great music! Simply put: a great concert! Will post more thoughts later, just had to chime in before bedtime.
Foucking great gig. I actually thought the middleparty of the unicorn worked better
Live than on record. La lethe, with Bent screaming the sax-parts was pretty amazing..
The concert ruined the album for me; It's so fucking much better without the strings & horns! I thought the show was absolutely stunning, and what's wrong with banging on one chord? While Ståle did a great job, I think Snah was drowned a bit in the sound. So I think it should have been more guitar in the mix. MP's live singing are very up and down, but I think they did great yesterday (with great help from the vocal effects though).
Looking forward to the opera show, but I really didn't miss the orchestras yesterday… quite the opposite.
Encores:
Gullible was tremendous. The sound of that 8-string… I think the krautrock part in it should be much, much longer, but still a great performance of a great song. And when Bent warned us before encore 2, I was hoping for Lighthouse Girl (or something else, but old MP), but only got Burn. It was great played, and fun, but I have no interest in Purple.
Only two hours… Ok, they are getting older, but Springsteen still play for 3h…. Just saying
Again: great gig!
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!
Som stuff on youtube now:
(Not 100% sure if this is from Sentrum Scene)
Just had a chance to listen to the recording I did – sounds quite good. I'll upload it as soon as I've had a chance to do a quick EQ/cutting job.
I should start copyrighting my opinions :lol:
Really looking forward to your recording, TAF!
@TAF: A big THANK YOU for your work!!!
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