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Posts
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Real Again
Mad Sun
Up/Down
Can’t Find My Way Home
Big SurpriseSinful WB
Dank State
Daedalus
Black As Night
Cold & Bored
-> Whip That Ghost
Patterns
All is one (not played)
Gullible
Sentinels
Nerve Tattoo
Überpilgrim
Plan #1ASFE
Rock Bottom
FG (not played)Thanks for posting the full setlist, @Wulf, and sorry for double-posting, but I’ve added timings (just the songs without the pauses/banter) for those interested:
Real Again (Norway Shrugs and Stays At Home) (3:10)
Mad Sun (4:37)
Upstairs-Downstairs (4:53)
Can’t Find My Way Home (Blind Faith cover) (3:52)
Big Surprise (4:15)
Sinful, Wind-Borne (5:03)
Dank State (5:08)
Hotel Daedalus (6:31)
Black As Night (The Frost cover) (5:29)
Cold & Bored (4:04)
> Whip That Ghost (11:06)
Patterns (5:27)
Gullible’s Travails (Pt. I-IV) (17:29)
Sentinels (6:24)
The Nerve Tattoo (4:19)
> Überwagner or a Billion Bubbles in My Mind (4:06)
> The Pilgrim (Wishbone Ash cover) (6:01)
Plan #1 (7:23)
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A.S.F.E. (6:57)
Rock Bottom (UFO cover) (7:27)Total: 2h 18m (21:30-23:48)
Concert was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The smooth and seamless transition from Cold & Bored to Whip That Ghost was worth the price of admission alone
Some songs worked very well with Olaf on drums, while some did not…As usual the heroes are LarsM & Spacebandit who has uploaded the auditory evidence on Dime. You guys forever rule!
(Repost in two parts, because my original post disappeared)
It’s a couple of days after the first Rockefeller-show MP have played since 2016, which was the Here Be Monsters-tour with Kenneth (that somehow feels longer than 7 years ago). At the time that felt like a substantial return to form after the lackluster 2014 Behind the Sun-show. In 2014 they opened with EIGHT acoustic numbers. Tonight they stopped at five – including “Big Surprise”, which was also played here in 2014 – and 2016 (electric).
Upon seeing that Olaf Olsen was drafted in for the tour, every psychonaut instinctively knew that this would be the Let Them Eat Yay!-tour. And that’s what it is. I don’t know how many people are genuinely excited about that, but to be both fair and realistic, most of the the last couple of tours – especially 2017-2019 and 2022 have been so stunning that they’ve frequently hit all time-peaks. You can’t achieve that level of telepathy with just a few weeks of rehearsal, regardless of how good your new drummer is. And teaching Olaf the N.O.X.-suite wouldn’t be playing to his strengths either. That being said – they have taught him the full “Gullible’s Travails”, so he is getting his prog hat on at times. More on that later.
Given the circumstances, I think we should cut both the band and Olaf aeons of slack. And Olaf is far from an illogical or bad choice. When Geb left, he was one of the Norwegian drummers I initially thought would have been plausible. I first saw him in February 2000, playing a small club with Bigbang on one of the final Electric Psalmbook-dates. I thought he was fantastic, and had a combination of Krupa/Mitchell-style swiftness on the toms combined with a Hayward-like pocket and heaps of punk-energy that was just killer and very unique. He instantly became a favourite of mine. Greni’s daft lyrics didn’t matter either, because he was jumping around and hanging from the rafters. It was awesome.
And 23 year on, if Saturday did not feature the very same Gretsch-kit Olaf used back then, it was at least extremely similar. It’s not only a smaller kit, but drier/woodier than Tomas’ (birch vs. maple perhaps), and Olaf also uses a smaller crashride to his left than both Kenneth and Tomas, which puts a lot of fast energy into the cymbalwash, reminiscent of both Geb and Jacco, but with less force on the snare than Geb, making the balance (loud crashride + soft/dynamic snare) sound a bit peculiar and unfamiliar in MP. A case in point from Saturday was “Whip That Ghost”, where so much emphasis was put on the snare as a driving element by Geb, that Olaf’s take almost felt inverted, with the cymbals being the backbone of the beat, and the snare taking more of an accent-role. I think it’s fair to suspect that he is holding a bit back from uncertainty on top of this as well, and putting a lot of energy in the cymbals while holding the snare back certainly makes him less susceptible to major fuck-ups, and more flexible when it comes to cues from the others.
Rockefeller was packed, and there was a quite friendly and politely cheerful mood in the room before the gig, which sort of stayed all the way through. My expectations were extremely low by MP-standards, with my only reference points being the Hamar-recording and the setlists from the other shows. But I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would, although I would agree with @otherdemon that it was a mixed bag.
“Real Again” is a fine opener, and the lyrics feel poignant and moving – as does “Mad Sun”, played ’93-style here. Bent was in decent voice for third gig in a row, and there were several fun quips between the acoustic numbers, such as “We would advice you all to sit down”, “Old non-hits become new again” and “We’re not entirely professional”. “Can’t Find My Way Home” is a beautiful song (I absolutely love the Swans-version), but didn’t quite evoke the magic of MP’s acoustic takes on “Nature’s Way” or “All Tomorrow’s Parties”. Both Olaf and Reine did fine though, although Reine’s mix was a bit erratic. “Big Surprise” had some nice singing from the crowd too, but as a whole the acoustic section was pleasant at best.
When the full band finally kicked in, “Sinful, Wind-Borne” lacked all of the laser-focus and sharp corners of Geb’s, Tomas’ and even Kenneth’s drumming on that track. Olaf is much more of a “groover” and not a “slicer”, which made it feel mushy and overly soft. All of the Yay!-tracks were very well suited for his style, though, and Snah’s exceptional soloing in “Hotel Daedalus” was the first highlight of the concert. At 40 minutes+ in, that came a bit on the late side, but it was a huge relief. Psychoverse unlocked.
On “Black As Night” they sounded like a well-oiled band, but nothing more either. It was just a decent version of a decent track, and they didn’t sprinkle any fairy dust on it. C&B > WTG was a very enjoyable section though, and actually reached one or two quite cool momentums, with very fine and playful drumming from Olaf, beautiful soloing from Snah, and Bent being hypnotic.
Reine was an excellent vibe-master as ever on both keys and guitar, but was frequently a bit low in the mix, such as in an otherwise very good “Patterns”, and particularly “The Nerve Tattoo”, where he was nearly inaudible. “Patterns” was a stand-out though, thanks to an absolutely stunning Snah-solo, where I thought Olaf was almost perfectly complimentary on the drums, playing with and against both Bent and Snah like he’d been in the band for years. A real goosebumps-moment, and I don’t think any drummer could have done that better. Following the positive thread, “Gullible’s Travails” used to bore me – even with Kenneth being the mad octopus on drums/mellotron, but this much simplified version was quite stellar, and Pt. III went from very pleasantly psychedelic with both Snah and Reine spacing out on keys before Snah went back to the guitar and took it to supersonic awesomeness, topped with Bent shaking the room with the Taurus before the transition to Pt. IV. Suuuper cool, and the sort of moment you always hope to get watching MP. YES (or YAY)!
Putting the otherwise quite mediocre “Sentinels” this late in the set wasn’t necessary a bad decision either. They brought over some of the space from Gullible’s, and it sounded breezy, pleasant and fluent, much thanks to Olaf’s tasteful drumming. “The Nerve Tattoo” was way, way off, though. Reine was something like 40dB too low in the mix, and Olaf was just not driving the band at all with his lanky bass-drumming during the verses. Yikes! Überwagner didn’t truly click either, although it was slightly better. Bent and Olaf didn’t totally gel during “The Visitant” either, although that was lifted by some great soloing from both Reine and Snah, and I got the sense that Olaf hanging by a thread in much of this final section. “Plan #1” had a particularly massive guitar sound from Snah, but Olaf seemed very lost here, with a host of inexplicable and lousy fills, coupled with some sloppy transitions that broke momentum.
They came back for “A.S.F.E.” and “Rock Bottom”, and I’m particularly glad that they did the former, because after a decent to average first five minutes, they FINALLY took off into Psychoverse again with some absolutely mind melting, thunderous attack from Snah – quite reminiscent of the Hamar “577”-noiseout, which was topped with wah wah after a few rounds. Another huge relief, highlight, and a seriously, seriously great space rock-moment. They only brought some, but not much of that momentum over to “Rock Bottom”, though. It was an average version of a pretty cool/fun closer.
So imho, there were about five truly great moments in the concert, coupled with a lot of transportation legs, but not a lot of dead air either. Much like the Yay!-album, it felt spirited, playful and wholesome, and often moving, while only very occasionally catching fire.
Thank you so much for such a comprehensive and absorbing read.
On the evidence of what I have heard, Bent is singing really well, as you say. So that’s great. On the other hand, your report further strengthens my partly-formed view that Olaf is, sadly, not the man for the job, although I appreciate that it would take any drummer time to bed in.
Thanks for the report Devotional, very interesting read. Let Them Eat Yay! tour was indeed what I thought. This is such an interesting phase for the band.
If this tour develops the way it has begun, it looks more like an overall retrospective – with elements from all MP phases in almost equal representation, probably one or two calmer (Semi-)acoustic songs and only the odd latter days prog monster from time to time, but four times as long nevertheless…
This all is Motorpsycho? Yay!Still I could do with a little more jamming adventure – an unlikely expectation given the drummer circumstances, but probably possible with Ingvald after several “learning” gigs. On the other hand I would gladly enjoy an (almost) acoustic version of Chien d’Espace for a change ;-)
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