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I also need a ride back to Oslo. We should just rent a naut bus! Or Else it will be street sleeping for me.
Selling my ticket for today, mail me paalegge@yahoo.no ASAP
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…!!!
The 22.15 change came early today, before they closed the area. I haven't seen any other confirmations.
Edit: sure it's planned to happen 22.15, but still weather dependant. I like to keep my hopes low…
Setlist:
Waiting For The One
Nothing To Say
Feedtime
Gutwrench
Sunchild
Mountain
Tuesday Morning
All Is Loneliness
Junior
Babylon
Mr Who
Plan #1
Sheer Profoundity
The One Who Went Away
—
Come On In
Demon Box > Step Inside Again > Demon Box
Note: Bent only barely left the stage to pick up an acoustic for "Come On In", so maybe it's stretching it to call it an encore, but the rest of the band did say "Takk for oss" and waved goodbye before leaving the stage.
So here I am back at home. Too numb to type, really. Words can not express how beautiful and surrealistic it was to get the whole album that kicked off my Motorpsychodelic journey played out in front of me like this. And I have to say that in my humble opinion the music if possible occupies even more of its own space now than it did back in 1993. There really isn't anything quite like it around. Not in the Motorpsycho catalogue, nor anywhere else. It is such an incredible record – dark and lysergic, and it really came to life tonight.
… And it almost didn't happen. Six concerts were cancelled at Slottsfjell today, and several were moved because of the strong wind. It wasn't until exactly 21:47 that the stairs opened, and we knew it would happen after all. Snah looked a bit worried when I saw him 20 minutes earlier, and the first thing Bent told us was that if the wind went past 15 m/s during the show, the festival would pull the plug on them, "so breathe against the wind". Luckily the wind was on our side, and we got the whole record. The band played for roughly 1 hour and 40 minutes.
The line-up was Geb, Kenneth, Bent, Snah and Deathprod. I believe they played the album in the order of side 1, 2, 4 (referenced as side "D" by Bent) and 3 (with "Step Inside Again" being played as part of "Demon Box", '93 style) (edit: as otherdemon pointed out, Junior was played before "Babylon" and "Mr Who"). Seeing Geb (with his four-piece drum kit) back on stage was such a joy. Not only did he still have it, but he seemed to have a very good report with Kenneth. They both played all the "drum songs" with two drum-kits, occasionally alternating roles, such as on "All Is Loneliness", where Geb played toms, and Kenneth cymbals (if I'm not mistaken). Bent and Snah stayed on acoustic for that one. It was pretty close to the album version, but was one of the very few underwhelming moments during the gig imho. It just felt a bit out of focus, and much less epic than the longer electric versions we've been spoiled with. Bent struggled a bit with his bass pedals throughout, or should I say that the sound engineer did, because whenever he stepped on them, it was a hit or miss as to how they would sit in the mix. They worked wonders when they did, though (such as on "Feedtime" and "Mountain"), and by "Plan #1" the mix was finally great down the front. It was bliss.
But yeah, some obvious technical difficulties aside, it's just impossible for me to write an "objective" or "intellectual" report of this gig. It was such a primal experience. And although the sound was probably better further back, I decided to stay up front (held the barrier) to mingle with the hardcore Psychonauts (of which there was plenty – one came all the way from California just to catch this gig), and avoid most of the stupendously drunk and chatty crowd, which was surprisingly respectful when Bent asked for quiet during "Come On In", and surprisingly energetic during "The One Who Went Away", where there was some serious moshing going on (Bent also jokingly urged the crowd to pogo and mosh like it was the 90's). Deathprod was smiling and nodding his head, clearly approving of the moshing, as was Snah, who had that wide awake but tripping "YES!"-look he gets sometimes.
Most of us in the the front row were headbanging and screaming our lungs out during "Feedtime", "Gutwrench" and "Sheer Profoundity" (tonight is was the harder – the more ecstatic), and although we couldn't hear all that much of the vocals where I stood, Bent's voice held up surprisingly well through all of the screaming, because he sounded fine during "Come On In". It did take its toll, though. His eyes looked nearly psychotic after a few of the tracks, and he took frequent swigs from a small bottle in his pocket. Still, a superb performance. Snah did a good amount of primal screaming himself, and generally seemed to be very energised and moved by the music. For "Demon Box", Bent sang most of the verses alone, and Snah came in and screamed the "I need you like I need gangrene"-part, which worked better than at Henie Onstad, where they both sang the verses.
I may be wrong, but I believe Bent sang some previously unheard words instead of laughing during "Tuesday Morning" (which was another track where they seemed to struggle a bit). Also of note, for "Mr Who" (which was really sweet and goofy), Kenneth played a small toy kit while Geb played acoustic guitar and sang back-up. Bent did all the electric songs with his Rickenbacker, and Snah played the violin for "Waiting For The One", but did not pull it out again for any psychedelic jamming like he did in '93.
And speaking of jamming – although they played for an hour and forty, there wasn't really a whole lot of time to stretch out, so many of the jammy tracks, such as "Nothing To Say" and "Mountain" were quite conservative, and I often wished they'd gone on for another couple of minutes. The big one was obviously saved for last, and I've never heard a more beautiful noise-out than the one they did for "Step Inside Again" into the last part of "Demon Box". It was fucking brutal. Deathprod gave his all here, at one point kneeling and feeding against the monitors while Bent was up against his amps, and Snah was noising away with a screwdriver on his guitar. I wish it would have gone on forever. A guy next to me told me he had trouble breathing because of the massive bass. I was certain the PA was gonna blow, but somehow it made it. It was a triumph. Bent thanked the crowd with glassy eyes afterwards, and the ovation went on for at least 5 minutes (maybe more) until the crew started packing up.
It must have been torturous for the band to spend a whole day in uncertainty, not knowing whether the gig was gonna happen or not, and even while they played there was always the chance of it being cut short. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but the added stress and tension seemed to bring an extra nerve to the performance. They played and sang like their lives depended on it. What can I say? You all should've been there.
Thank you so much for the devoted report and letting all of us dive deep into what happened last night … sad to not having been able to participate but glad that it happened in the end
Sounds like it was like expected: totally awesome!
Thank you so much for the report. Wish I could have been there. Hearing Geb and Kenneth played together seems like a dream to me…
Yeah – thank you one more time for that sweet review!
Your writing makes it quite bitter-sweet of course, as I could not be there… I wish I could have seen Geb. With or without Motorpsycho – I really miss him from time to time…
Did you spot any professional cameras, btw?
:MPD:
Mr. Devotional said it all (almost) in his review, so I'm not gonna repeat that.
A few things though:
– For some reason they played Junior before Babylon/Mr. Who. Bent said "for dramaturgic reasons we're gonna play side 4 now" and then they went straight into Junior. Not sure why they swapped the order, but whatever.
– The sound was decent where I stood (on the rocks in front of the soundboard). Of course the wind did dictate the mix a bit from time to time, but we all know the album by heart anyway :lol:
– Nice seeing Geb again! Equally as good as Øya 2010, him & Kenneth had some nice drum battles last night. He also looked very excited during the Q&A; easily the most talkative one during that interview.
– I think the goal last night was to perform the album as close to the studio version as possible. The only songs slightly stretched out were Mountain (funky as fuck) and the title track (with a long Step Inside Again/noise inferno in the middle). The rest of the songs were performed "by the book". So if you were looking for some melodic jamming last night, your request wasn't fulfilled.
Great night, great performance!
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