Monster Magnet - Wolverhampton Fri 20th Feb

[Paul Mather]

On Sat, Feb 21, 2004 at 05:24:51PM +0000, Alan Linsley wrote:

=> Two of the best numbers were probably from Spine of God, although I
=> can't swear to it as it's the one MM LP I don't have.  An epic in the
=> middle of the set (including some comment about "you can't hide it
=> under your Army Coat"?) seemed to get the more die-hard fans going,

This sounds like "Zodiac Lung" from _Spine of God_.

=> while the second encore number certainly included Spine of God in the
=> lyrics, and was much more trippy and even kraut-rockish than the rest

The title track "Spine of God" includes the lyric "you don't yank on
the spine of God."

=> of the set.  Good to see them returning to their roots like that for
=> the end of the gig.  If anybody could confirm what these numbers were
=> I'd be grateful, although SoG is definitely on the shopping list now
=> regardless.

The omission of _Spine of God_ from anyone's Monster Magnet collection
is, IMHO, a hanging offence. ;-)

=> I was relieved to see that the band themselves haven't transferred
=> their occasionaly Spinal Tap-esque album photo look to their stage act,
=> they're still very much a jeans-and-tshirts bunch.  However, two
=> platforms were specially built at the front of the stage to allow them
=> all to jump up and pose a bit, although only Dave does it at all
=> convincingly.  He's very into it, a born frontman, regaling the crowd
=> with his, er, messages like "Rock Is Alive!" etc, but the others aren't
=> necessarily classic crowd pleasers.  Ed Mundell for example is just an
=> effortlessly superb guitarist who looks a bit sheepish posing on a box.

Wot, you mean Ed has stopped wearing those leather trousers? :-)

I remember most of Ed's embarrassment when I saw them in Roanoke
stemmed from the two ebullient ladies in the front who kept grabbing
for his crotch.  After a while it looked like he was kind of scared to
go to the front to do his 70s wah-wah guitar hero pose. :-)

I met Ed in the car park after the show, on my way back to my car.  He
seemed a really nice bloke.  He complimented me on my Hawkwind
_Doremi..._ t-shirt, and I thanked him for having the band play "Time
We Left^W^W^WBummer" during the show...

=> Good gig.  I'd recommend them to any HW or BOC fans who get the chance
=> to see them.  Like anybody here needs telling anyway.  I'll certainly
=> be trying to fit in that Shepherds Bush date in April.

They put on a great show, and I would recommend folks go see them.  I
don't know how they stand up to repeated attendances on the same tour,
as I hear a lot of Dave's "spontaneous stage antics" are quite
scripted and I don't know if they mix up the setlist very much at
different gigs.  Does he still set that old guitar on fire, for
example, or did they put the kibosh on that after The Station fire?
(When they did it in Roanoke I couldn't help thinking "my, that
ceiling is rather low and those flames are rather high."  I was in the
front row and could feel the heat easily.)

Cheers,

Paul.

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa