OFF: Monster Magnet

[Scott Heller]

Here is my story about a day with Monster Magnet in Copenhagen!

370.  MONSTER MAGNET, Ash, Backyard Babies.  Stor Vega, København 12/6/98
185 kroner

        What a day! Freezing outside and snow on the ground as I wait
outside Vega for the band to arrive. They arrive from the hotel and I greet
Ed, Jon, Tim and Joe as they get out of the van. We head into the club and
Ed tells the tour manager to give me a pass for the show.  This is about 4
in the afternoon.  The band grabs a drink and then goes straight to the
soundcheck. Tim is very busy working on getting the lighting right and the
band is testing their stuff. Dave does not come to soundcheck anymore, the
band said.  They run thru some riffs and then finally play Evil, andpart of
Temple of your Dreams, and Cage around the sun. It takes about 30 minutes.
I stood at the back of the stage and recorded some of it. Evil with the
roadie Coz singing was pretty cool. Ed complains that they can't get anyone
to come out and sing the stooges song!  I hang out with Jon, Joe and Ed and
we eat some food and talk about touring, living in denmark, etc.. We are
planning to go out and walk around as the band isn't playing for 5 hours.
Phil, the new guitar player, is having troubles with his guitar and says 15
more minutes several times and then a hour goes by and we take off without
him.  As we walk down the street towards the red light district (the only
place in town with places open on sunday afternoon!). They are freezing and
stop and see this giant rocket, like 3 feet tall that Ed really wants to
buy and set off for 350 kroner, but they don't have enough money. We did
not buy it and the store was closed when we came back by and they were
bummed!  We continue on and are not seeing that much so decide to stop in
the Spunk Bar for a drink. Ed and joe have a tuborg christmas beer (Jul Øl)
and Jon a whiskey.  We are sitting at a table next to some drunk swedish
kids, one wearing a Powertrip t-shirt. it takes him a while to catch on who
is sitting next to them. He is freaking out a bit. They traveled all the
way from Göteborg (100 miles).  The band has a fun time laughing and joking
around and we talk about music and the swedes interupt and ask questions
now and again and get some autographs.   The band is really into different
stuff. Jon likes BEck a lot and is writing country and western songs like
Hank Williams Jr.  Ed is really into 70's rock, Allman Brothers, Tommy
Bolin, Cactus, etc..  Ed was still on a total high after just jamming with
Gregg Allman and Gov't Mule on One Way out at the Filmore in San Francisco.
I told him I would get him a copy of the show. Joe is still really into
punk.   After 45 minutes or so we head back and the Backyard Babies start
soon. Joe and I listen to them from underneath the stage. They rock out
seriously and come back thru drenched in sweat after only like 30 minutes.
Crowd seem to dig them.  I got to hear a few tracks off the CD in the
dressing room and it sounded good. They even steal the riff for Superjudge
on one track and Dave later tells me the he stole it from the Groundhogs!
Ash are some really young UK punk pop band who have given the band the cold
shoulder because Rob Zombie dropped off the tour and they were suppose to
headline the show in the Lillie Vega and it was decided now they would
combine the two gigs and they would play second. Ed and I went up to the
balcony and checked out a couple of their songs and they were sort of
standardish fast punky popish stuff.  We were not impressed, but Ed did
like the female guitar player's SG!  We went back downstairs and Joe and I
chatted again and he was interested in checking them out a bit so this time
we watched from the backstage. The band actually play a very cool song
while we watch, but Joe still hates them just from the attitude they have
showed towards the band. Funny that Ash complained about having to play for
an hour and they only played 45 minutes!

        I have a short Chat with Dave while he is preparing his voice for
the show.  Seems that Phil, the new guitar player was brought in mostly to
boost the guitar sound as dave is really not playing much guitar these days
and really being a wild front man.   Well, I head off for the balcony,
where I sit dead center in the first row. The balcony was closed off at
this show so only roadies, bands and friends were sitting up there. The
guys in Backyard babies and Ash watch the whole show and were really into
it.  It was great sound (very loud) and the visuals were very cool, but a
bit obscured by the use of too bright of lights from the top. It is a pity
as Tim had a huge screen this night and some great film clips from
Apocalypse Now, the smashing skull, etc... but the band needs to use darker
lights so you can see the screen more. It was kind of lost. Anyway, the
band open up with a stretched out version of Atomic Clock, which I guess
has been the opener for the whole tour.  Ed's lead guitar was nice and loud
and in your face! This seem to change depending on which guitar he played!
He and Phil changed nearly every song from cool old SG's, Les Paul,
stratocaster. Phil used some wierd guitars I did not really recognize.
Next up is a ripping heavy version of Tractor.  The crowd gives a different
response to the old versus the new songs.  Powertrip was up next and
followed by a ballsy version of Dopes to Infinity but Ed cut the solo to
short.. Living Crop Circle was cool but Dave fucked up his mic at the end
of the song and you could not hear him out front even though they could
hear him thru the monitors on stage. Cage around the Sun was the highlight
of the show even though you could not hear Dave's vocals at all but Ed
played some awesome spacey stuff with a sort of sitar like guitar.  Temple
of your Dreams was good but Bummer sounded really heavy and the band seem
to really be into the groove. I love the flanged out guitar on Teenage
Negasonic, makes it sound really spacey.  The band ends the set with Space
Lord. Phil's guitar sounds like it is tuned strangly to me and the opening
riff sounds kind of wierd. The band can't quite get the guitar sound live
that was on the studio lp. They split and this is about 70 minutes.  The
band hang out at the back of the stage for maybe 5 minutes. There is a
constant guitar feedback going on though and it is quite loud for the
audience to clap and yell over it. They come back out and rip out a 3
minute version of Kick out the Jams by MC5 and then Dave pulls out his
therimon and starts making really cool spacey sounds while Ed plays the
opening chords to Spine of God.  The intro is maybe five minutes before
Dave starts singing and they have alot of effects on his voice for this
song, something I think they should do more of.  They do about a 15 minute
version that is pretty far out. I am not too sure what the new fans of the
band thought but the old ones like myself thought it was great. I spoke to
the bad afterwards and they thought that it was good show and a cool
version of Spine of God, a song they look forward to as it is one of the
ones that allows them to break the routine!  What a fucking day!!  I spoke
with Dave and the rest of the guys after the show and wished them a merry
christmas with their families and headed on home. I just caught the last
bus as 12:19!

        Joe said that the band has a lot of old four track recordings of
stuff that they could release some day.  The next CD single will be temple
of your Dreams. The record company wanted 19 Witches to be the single. Joe
thinks the b-sides will be live cuts but he said that two other new cuts
that have not made the record were also sitting around.  They never did
finish up the cover of Mistreated by the Groundhogs from the Dopes
recording session.   I guess that is all.  The full set list is below. Glad
to see a few changes from the US tours so far. Looks like they may open for
Marilyn Manson early next year and then hit the Ozzfest before taking some
time off and doing another record.  Not likely another record will be out
until the year 2000 sometime.

Atomic Clock, Tractor, Powertrip, Dopes to Infinity, Living Crop Circle,
Cage Around the Sun, Temple of your Dreams, Bummer, Teenage Negasonic
Warhead, Space Lord Motherfucker

Encore: Kickout the Jams, Spine of God

scott

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