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Real again
Sunchild
Lady May
The Maypole
Big surprise
Sentinels
W.C.A.
Sinful, wind-Borne
Uberwagner 》
Pilgrim
Daedalus
Cold and Bored 》
Kill some day
Go to california
Travails!
Patterns
The united Debase
Miuntain
Plan#1
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Asfe
Dank State
Rock BottomCa 02h25m
A really good generic show.
Had to Uber after Rock Bottom, so do tell if i might have missed a song or two
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Complete setlist:
Real Again
Sunchild
Lady May
Maypole
Big Surprise
————
Sentinels
WCA
Sinful, Wind-Borne
ÜberPilgrim
Daedalus
Cold & Bored >
Kill Some Day
Go To California
Gullible’s Travails
Patterns
Utd. Debased
Mountain
Plan #1
—————
ASFE
Dank State
Rock Bottom
—————
Be Good Be KindNotes:
– approx 2h55m
– the first separation in the setlist indicates, as in the other setlists, the end of the (semi-)acoustic set and the beginning of the electric one
– in the setlist I got, there is another separation between Kill Some Day and Go To California, but to me it didn’t seem there was an encore there
– Be Good And Be Kind was not on the setlist; instead on the setlist is reported “Rock B/Chari?”, which, in absence of a better guess, seems to indicate they kept an option to end the show with Chariot Of The SunFrancesco
So, how was it you ask? I see very few real reviews around here or on FB, just the usual self-congratulatory “awesome show last night guys!» on FB. Devotional’s write-up on The Oslo show is the one exception- finally some real critique of the band with their “new” lineup. I really respect Devotional’s opinions and I usually agree with him.
All that said, I attended last night’s gig with very low expectations, but I’m sad to say even those weren’t met. Altogether, this was one of the worst shows out of 35 or so over the years since 1997. That’s not to say all was terrible, but there were moments last night where I cringed and thought about leaving, and that hasn’t happened since I walked out 2+ hrs into a Tussler show in 2004.
The good things first;
– acoustic opening set was a first for me. Relaxed and comfy mood, maybe too much so. It was a fumbling start, but a real boon to hear the underrated Maypole. Sunchild in a non-Tussler acoustic arrangement was fun. Lady May is a lovely excuse to do Dark-Star style excursions but was much better in electric version at Blitz in 2021.– the return of some songs that haven’t been played in a long time. Some of those I love (KSD) some I haven’t missed (Go to C).
Now the bad things:
– the sound: God, no WHY?? The last few years the sound has been great at almost all shows I’ve attended. The Blitz stand had the best sound I’ve ever hear at a Motorpsycho gig, but Asker last December was also very good. But this was a return to the worst aspects of the past; drums that were simultaneously too loud yet not powerful, cymbals hissing and washing out all detail, unattractive bass drum and snare, bass muddy and owerpowering, guitar details lost. It wasn’t so bad in the start but got worse the louder it got. Moving back in the hall didn’t help; it was less loud but just as muddy. It wasn’t that it was too loud overall either, it just sucked. This probably hampered my overall appreciation, so bear that in mind.
– the drummer: before I say anything more; I love Olaf’s drumming with Needlepoint. He’s the perfect drummer for them, sensitive and creative with just enough skills to make it interesting. But he is not the right drummer for Motorpsycho, and I suspect Bent and Snah have already discovered as much. Some songs worked quite well; the acoustic set, most of the Yay! material, and, strangely enough, the encore… But anything that called for something with punch, precision and authority fell through in a big way. Sinful, Wind-borne was feeble and Plan #1 was just a travesty. By that stage Bent and Snah were also struggling big-time, with extremely poor vocal performances and coupled with the muddy sound I think all confidence was gone. The stretch from Gullible through the end of the main set was painful.
All was not bad, though. There were moments where someone stepped up to the plate and offered an interesting twist, I particularly remember a great skronky section during the kraut part of Gullible by Snah.
However, altogether I have to say that this lineup of the band just doesn’t gel and it was just too obvious at times. You could say I should give Olaf more time to settle in, but I think he is just not the right fit and that’s not his fault. Coming in after Tomas Järmyr is of course akin to the proverbial “jumping after Wirkola”, so anyone who makes an attempt is taking on a daunting task. I was sad but not very surprised when I heard that Tomas was leaving, but now I’m sadder than before. I think the band as a unit hit new peaks with him that I couldn’t have imagined. There were good-time vibes last night that may have been missing during the Tomas era, but I didn’t hear anything last night that made me think there could be new avenues to explore in the same way I heard that with Tomas. I’ve never heard that Kanaan drummer (Ingvald?), but I have hopes that a very young guy eager to explore is the thing they need. If he has the skill to play with authority and decisiveness as well as across different styles, then I have hopes for a future. Last night’s lineup was a dead end for me, unfortunately.
Funny – I just watched the Tromsø show on Youtube yesterday and was positively surprised – again. The setlist didn’t sound too promising, but the sound was great and the band delivered.
Admittedly there’s less musical adventure in this year’s concerts so far, no wonder given the drummer situation. But I think it is o.k. sometimes to just lean back and follow a more tradiditional path, just to prepare for further explorations in the future.
I do have some hope for the European leg of the tour. Probably with Ingvald they should solve the new/sit-in drummer situation the other way round: explore, improvise on a few musical monsters instead of just repeating a limited set of shorter songs, which is quite un-motorpsychedelic anyway. Blow up the tunes, not the set. Even when it’s a Yay! tour, and not Monster Crucible Chariots Towering at Azrael’s Sonata.
But throwing in the odd “Chariot” now and then instead of playing “Gullible” too often…I dunno, guys. I somewhat agree with some of those points, but as it turned out, I had a great time regardless.
Granted, there were a few external factors that contributed to my enjoyment:
-I came alone and could move around as I pleased, pretending to be completely invisible.
-I had high quality ear plugs, and for the most part they made it easier to make sense of the sound situation (which wasn’t stellar, I’m not disputing that).
-Edibles peaked around Gullible’s.That said, I liked the vibe on stage last night. I’ve seen Motorpsycho with almost every drummer, and Olaf brought something new. I remember thinking that he was deliciously *analog* (I blame the edibles), and that he was the most Gebhart-y drummer since Gebhart. He didn’t get lost that many times – again, I’ve seen most MP drummers on their first or at least early gigs, and they all got lost at some point – and when he did, they didn’t make a big deal of it and found a way out together. He’s not the freight train that Thomas can be, he doesn’t do 11- or 17-tuplets like Kenneth, but a lot of the time I would just bob my head and get lost in it and not think about him, which says something about his musicality. I also liked that he struggled to hold back the tempo on four-on-the-floory stuff like Überwagner. I appreciate metronomic accuracy, but I can get behind the enthusiasm.
I said I liked the vibe, and again it’s just a feeling, there’s no science in this review. I got a sense of transparency, of witnessing a band really trying to make the most of it. They struggled with their voices, with monitoring, with getting Reine Fiske plugged in, even Snah and Bent lost the beat at the start of Gullible’s, there were cracks all over the place, but it felt good, and it – hm – grooved. :D
I almost got emotional.
Perhaps I chose to see the glass as half full, but every now and then this felt like nineties Motorpsycho, and I will never complain about an evening where I get to hear Gullible’s Travails.
I have no idea what that last encore was, but the band coming back on after the applause ended and the ‘go home’ music played was BIZARRE.
I met happy people outside afterwards, too. It wasn’t just me. :)
I have to agree with Shakti on everything Olaf.
I love Olaf as a drummer, as Bigbang is the only band ive listened to longer than Motorpsycho.That being said; He didnt seem to have listened enough to the material. He had 2-3 fast fills that were used on all songs, and rarely did what Gebhardt/Kapstad/Järmyr does on the records, which is fine for some songs but not all.
I was up front by Snah, and the keyboard-things he did was at one point WAY louder thsn anything else. I was standing two meters away from Olaf, and I could see he was crashing all his cymbals, but I couldnt hear any drums, bass or guitars at all.
With Olaf they should have dropped all the longer Kapstad/Järmyr pieces and replaced them with catchy, shorter songs frol BH/BC and more acoustic stuff imo.
Edit:
Did they play Sentinels at that poiny of the set? I wroye down «Chariot or something from Astronauts» in my notes.I don’t want to give the impression that I didn’t enjoy it – I thoroughly enjoyed myself up to a certain point. But they never quite grabbed me this time, for whatever reasons which I tried to outline. No chemical enhancement for me, alas, beyond yer old beer. A below average (IMO) Motorpsycho show is still pretty good. But I think it’s important, not least as a big fan, to take off the fanboy glasses and try to scrutinise what they are doing and where they are headed. Or you can just take it at face value and enjoy what you get out of it, either way is fine.
At this junction I find the former approach is the most interesting.
I really appreciate the ‘fanboy glasses off’ approach of Devotional and shakti. It is interesting to analyse what does and what doesn’t work, and reading such even-handed accounts, especially when they are so well written and come from people who are passionate about all that is great about the band, is always worthwhile.
Personally, I am not worried. This does appear, relatively speaking, to be a bit of a lull. There are a number of contributory factors. I wouldn’t want to make it all about Olaf. He is not a bad drummer. However, I suspect that Shakti is correct in that Bent and Snah will already have figured out that he is not the one. In fact, they might never have seen him as the one. Tomas was indeed a great loss, but, if they can get Ingvald involved on a permanent basis, and really get in the groove with him, I think there could still be great things ahead, and we will just look back on this as a bit of marking time, and if that means a few older, more straightforward numbers get dusted off and that pleases people, that’s no bad thing.
I may be wrong, but I already have a very strong sense of the magic that will be conjured by the Bent/Snah/Ingvald axis, enhanced, of course, by Reine. I think it might be written in the Heavens. This will be a total rejuvenation!
Some thoughts of mine:
I havn‘t attended a gig with Olaf, but I watched a few minutes of the TROMSØ Video.
The first song they played in TROMSØ was called „Feel“ and not „Think“ or „Analyse“…
I remember two gigs in 2006 with Jacco after Geb left. Did I have had time to think,analyse or even complain? Of cause not! The best band in the world was (back) on stage and I had to dance and feel great and enjoy every precioos second of that two shows. (My best 2 days in 2006)
In my life/opinion: You totally miss the amazing feelings of a (every) MP-gig if you are listening while thinking. I hope the day will never come, that I hear more with my brain than with my heart…,
Sorry to be a downer here, but the analysis is, as have been mentioned, all been done in love and enthusiasm for the band. Where else to discuss such matters than on a fanforum? (and it is, of course more interesting to focus on the few negatives than marvel at the positives.. at least after witnessing 50+ gigs from our boys. And their high standard has been set by themselves, soo..)
I was at the Tromsø gig and had the exact impression as Shakti. I don`t feel like Olafs style is a great fit for the band and he was on deep water an more than one occasion. (Gullible was hard to watch/hear..).
It reminded me of seeing them with Jacco after Geb left. Servicable, but instead of following along into space, both he and Olaf mainly focused on keeping the beat through the sonic excursions.
It might have worked better if they had done what I thought they would: Yay!-ify the WHOLE set, and play shorter more accustic stuff from the new album and old songs in a mellower wrapping, but instead they tried to go back to how things were before Thomas left. And that didn’t work with Olaf, imo.
To end on a positive note: We live in interesting times, and seeing the band reinvent itself in real time is fascinating.
I think quite a lot of humans are able both to feel and to analyse, don’t you? Maybe the analysis comes later. Analysis by those who are able to feel deeply is particularly valuable
Yes, I don’t see a contradiction here. I try to feel, but when I can’t I try to analyse why. I can assure you I went in with the best of intentions and enjoyed myself along the way. Pretty sure I sang/screamed louder than anyone else during Kill Some Day.
But there were problems (objectively!) that were just too obvious, hence my analysis which you can agree or disagree with.
When Jacco came along I was just elated that the band still existed and had a new album out. Since then we have learnt to live through drummer changes, so now it’s all about finding the right person.
Though I also agree that Yay!-ifying tge whole set would, in retrospect, have worked better overall.
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