Motorpsycho - Loppen, Christiania April 9, 2002
From Aural Innovations #19 (April 2002)
I showed up to Loppen about 15:15 and met Morten the road manager. He said the band would be right there, that they were doing a photo shoot. I could see they were not far away having a bunch of photos taken. After 15 minutes they started walking towards where I was and we introduced ourselves. They were expecting me. We chatted and then we went into the backstage dressing room and sat down and had a fantastic interview for 60 minutes. Some of the nicest guys I have met and very open to all questions. They have the attitude I wish all bands had towards music and the love to experiment. Improvisation is so important to this band. I went home and had dinner and my wife and I watched the rest of a movie and I went back to Loppen and set up my recording gear on Pete's (the soundmans) mic stand. Excellent sound. The band played a lot of songs this night that I had never heard them play live. A really different set and vib from the show 7 months ago.
They opened with "On My Pillow" and into "SNAFU". Real rock songs. "The Other Fool" was next followed by a very jamming version of "Song For A Bro". The bands tribute to the Allman Brothers song. "Bedroom Eyes" and "Landslide" were next, two poppy numbers. I was standing right in the front and could really watch these guys play. Man, Geb is an awesome drummer. They all play very well but I wouldn't say any are virtuosos, which is a good thing. "Giftland" was incredible. What a great song and vibe. A new songs "überwagner" was next. Then three popular songs, "Blindfolded", "Never Let You Out" and "Walking With J". I had to change the minidisc now and the band were too quick to start so the first 3 bars (15 secs) of the "Skies Are Full Of Wine" were missed. A great song. "577" was incredible with some awesome jamming and band interaction. The band were having such a great time this night. This was the last song of the main set. The first encore was "The Slow Phaseout", followed by "You Lied" and "Numbness". These are 3 of my least favorite songs but the crowd was singing along. Then came "Superstooge". A great bass line and an incredible space jam was played afterwards. Very cool. The band came back for one more song, "Fools Gold". An excellent song and a great show. I went backstage and said congrats on a great concert and especially that great jam at the end of "Superstooge". They also thought it was extremely cool and a good show and a good way to start the tour. The Motorpsychoheads are in for a hell of a tour!
Reviewed by Scott Heller