The anticipation building for Monster Magnet’s European tour where they would play the entire Dopes To Infinity (1995) album was high, and the concert in Oslo, Norway, was sold out. The Stoner Rock dinosaurs had teamed up with the up-and-coming Hard Rockers of Black Spiders for the European Tour, and both bands were on the top of their game this evening …
Black Spiders
Black Spiders is a relatively new Stoner/Hard Rock band from Great Britain. Their music is groovy as hell and really catchy. They’ve released three EP’s during their short existence, and released their debut album Sons Of The North this year. Their lyrics are a bit tongue-in-cheek, such as the lyrics to “KISS Tried to Kill Me” (KISS tried to kill me / It was Gene and Paul / KISS tried to kill me / It wasn’t Ace’s fault).
Their drummer seemed kind of crazy — he was licking his drum sticks in-between the songs and had a psycho look on his face throughout the evening. During their show they encouraged the crowd to show them the middle finger and shout “Fuck you, Black Spiders!” The last song of their set, “Blood Of The Kings,” was dedicated to all the Vikings in the crowd. Since the Vikings came to England and planted their seed, the band figured that they’ve got some of that seed in them, and now they were bringing it back.
The band actually has three guitarists (including the vocalist), and all of them played rhythm and solos. Though they’re flirting with Stoner Rock, they are actually closer to straight Hard Rock than to their Monster Magnet touring mates. It will be interesting to see what this band can do in the future.
Setlist: Stay Down / KISS Tried To Kill Me / Stick It To The Man / St. Peter / Wolves / Just Like A Woman / Blood Of The King
Monster Magnet
American Stoner Rockers Monster Magnet have finally decided to play one of their albums from start to finish, as a lot of bands have done the last couple of years. The choice of album was their 1995 classic Dopes To Infinity, but they decided to do this concept with a twist of their own. Instead of playing the songs in the order they were on the album, they played them in what seemed a random order, opening with the album closer “Vertigo.”
The crowd seemed most familiar with the song “Look To Your Orb For The Warning,” maybe because a shorter version of the song appeared on the soundtrack to the film The Matrix. Singer/guitarist Dave Wyndorf seems to have gained some weight since the band’s days of glory in the mid-90s, but that didn’t seem to affect his stage performance at all. He gave all he had, and sometimes his voice was even a bit rougher than on the original recordings, making him reminiscent of Jim Morrison a bit.
One of the highlights was the really heavy instrumental track “Ego, The Living Planet.” The band really shined on this song, while Wyndorf took the backseat for this performance. The song is massive and nothing can penetrate it. It really adds to the diversity of the album and to the live performance. On the other end of the heavy-scale, the crowd got treated to “Blow ’em Off”, which was beautifully performed with an acoustic guitar.
For the encore, Monster Magnet had saved the album’s hit single “Negasonic Teenage Warhead” as well as “Hallucination Bomb” off their 2010 album Mastermind, and “Powertrip” and “Spacelord” from the band’s commercial breakthrough, 1998’s Powertrip.
The band seemed to be in great shape, and Wyndorf had a great connection with the crowd. As the crowd seemed loudest during the two last songs, it will be interesting to see if Monster Magnet will do another tour utilizing the full album performance concept; perhaps playing Powertrip in its entirety. The fans sure would like that.
Setlist: Vertigo / I Control, I Fly / Look To Your Orb For The Warning / Dopes To Infinity / All Friends And Kingdom Come / Ego, The Living Planet / Blow ’em Off / Dead Christmas / Third Alternative / Theme from “Masterburner” / King Of Mars / Encore: Negasonic Teenage Warhead / Hallucination Bomb / Powertrip / Spacelord
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