"guten abend"
snah shouts upon entering the stage. he sounds pumped. they open very
relaxed with the instrumental, named "5/4" this time. surely a mood setter,
a nice one, i dig it.
"since they [TSOOL] rock so good then we thought we do something else today.
we'll just see what happens. alright? you guys are with us?" bent adresses us.
"YES!" i go inside. i was hoping for "something else"!
the past two years i've seen motorpsycho doing pop &
rock shows, i have seen mellow shows & mixed ones with
a good portion of psychedelia but i did not get one of
those EXTREMELY FAR OUT shows, one of those shows with
the longest versions & the spaciest improvisations
like darmstadt & pisa 2000 or holland 1999. the
closest i came to those kinds of shows were berlin
1997 & dresden 1999. but i disgress. :)
"blindfolded" is next. a song i haven't heard yet on this tour & i suck it in;
i just love snah's 'out-of-tune-in-tune' singing. ;)
the boring threesome of "phase out" / "nlyo" / "tof" is
next. i start to worry. this is not exactly the
setlist that leads up to a psychedelic show
extraordinaire. "phase out" followed by "never let you
out"? huh? bent, this isn't different!
during "the other fool" the exhaustion, the lack of
sleep & the alcohol kick in & i stand there falling
asleep for maybe two minutes.
the brutal intro of "superstooge" wakes me up & i am
totally there again. i just love following the inside
jam which took very adventurous paths recently. the
jam is dominated by baard's distorted organ & soon it
moves into "tristano" which i don't recognise at once.
slowly the bass riff creeps into my brain & i realise
it's my first "tristano" ever! i am stunned. the
"superstristano" combination works very well. the way
they increase the tempo is very hypnotic & climatic.
this is clearly one of the songs that would not be
possible without baard & i start to wonder whether it
might be his brainchild...
from now on the setlist works very well. we get a
quick "time to skate", which pleases the audience,
before the sweet & intense couple "up down" / "unreal"
is played. the versions presented tonight are much
more intense than the ones i have heard either on CD
or in concert; both gain a lot from the new sound: "up
down" HAS TO BE played electric & "unreal" has a new
guitar sound that finally does the album-version
justice. :)
"watersound" is the bridge to a six-rock-song segue
that just takes off! the incredible "drug thing"
really shines with perfection, p e r f e c t l y followed by
"like always" (i remember "like always" was originally
part of "blissard" which makes sense tonight!) & the
"into the sun" outro jam brings the house down!
wow! this was really really hard. everything was
special: the sound, the lights, the venue, the
audience (one of those non-talking, head-shaking
ones).
the encore opens with "when you're dead". at least
this is better than midset when it totally kills the
momentum, so i do not suffer that much. ;-)
what came next was the musical centerpiece of 'my'
"phanerothyme" tour. :)
a jam starts. very slowly. bent & baard play
something. what is this? this sounds familiar! could
it be the "the wheel"? snah joins in. no, this can't
be "the wheel" unless they decide to totally rearrange
it. but damn, if this bass riff doesn't sound like
"the wheel"! they take their time. three minutes into
the jam i still do not recognise it. i am reminded on
early (spring 1997) "superstooge" versions. it has the
same feeling. the jam grows louder & tighter. i stand
there mouth open realising i am witnessing something
HUGE & EXCEPTIONAL! i move closer to the stage. the
audience listens with concentration.
after six minutes they jam their way into "my best
friend" (OF COURSE!).
it was only this year that i fully understood this
beautiful song & it was t h e song i wanted to hear
especially after i had listened to the freaky version
from rome the night before in the hotel. this is their
new "K9" & it is a worthy replacement!
the middle part is very abstract. it's screeching,
it's noisy, it's feedback, it's funky & electric, it's
baard & IT IS SPOOKY! i am reminded on 1997 versions
of "un chien d'espace". it's this kind of jam you
don't want to hear alone in the dark. the lights
underline this effect: blue-ish stripes everywhere,
very dark, very subtle.
after six minutes it gets very quiet & both, snah &
bent, kneel down & play with their amps (the effect of
watching fireside the other night?).
bent gets up & leads the band into a very hard &
upbeat, guitar-dominated jam that still has that dark
feeling to it. awesome. the perfect counterpart to the
light-hearted & sweet third verse that closes this 25
min suite of improvisation.
this wasn't the last "best friend" i saw this tour but
it surely was the most drastically altered & spaced
out one. :)
the second encore brings us "taifun" which never ever
fails to impress with its incredible build up.
that's it. show is over & i am happy beyond
expression. this show was very different from the
night before & it can surely be regarded as the
highlight of the german tour. :)
in fact, it was the best MP show i've seen since
dresden 1999. i am just constantly surprised about
the many sides of MP. :)
i was happy & in heaven. what a pity the next stop of
the tour would be berlin, with all my
hometown-troubles etc.
at this point i would have followed the band EVERYWHERE! :)