Nebula and Gas Giant- Loppen, Kobenhavn, Denmark 9/16/99
From Aural Innovations #8 (October 1999)
I showed up a little early and hung out with Gas Giant and talked with the guys in Nebula as well. Really nice down-to-earth guys. Ruben even remembered me from when we met back in 1995 in Northampton, MA when Fu Manchu opened for Monster Magnet. I was trying to get the guys in Gas Giant psyched up and to really go out and jam. Ralph and Jonas were pretty unhappy with the poor turnout. There was only about 30 people when Gas Giant started and perhaps 45 maximum for Nebula. It would turn out to be a real nightmare for me as far as recording. I had never had any problems with my minidisc recorder but today, it was giving me disc defect errors, can't record. I only got the first Gas Giant song and 6 songs by Nebula. I was quite bummed. Gas Giant opened with an old song called Clowner and sounded great. Wow... the bass sound was incredible and Stefan, he had his great guitar tone as always. This song was really a great way to get things going, but the guitar solo was too short. The guys in Nebula said that on this tour they had been using local cats for warm up and that Gas Giant were the best of the lot that they had played with. Nice praise!!! Next they played another old number I was not familiar with. This was followed by Fire Trippin' and this was a song I had just heard in the studio with Stefan and this version was very different. This band is great in the way that are always changing their old material to make it fresh for themselves. Next up was their Kyuss influenced song, Never Leave You Alone. On the demo, this has a really great guitar solo and Stefan really played some nice guitar. Jesper can really belt it out with a lot of feeling if he wants to. The bass playing was monstrous as well. Thomas has recently gotten one of these fuzz box pedals and this has changed his sound. Great! Pete, the drummer is very focused and excellent as well. Pete, Stefan and Thomas have been playing together for about 10 years. I think this is one reason why the band can improvise with such ease. One more song followed before the band entered into the experimental phase and played some really far out stuff. A band to really watch for. The guys in Nebula said that Gas Giant were the best band that has opened for them on the whole tour! They played for 45 or so minutes and were quite well received.
It only took 15 minutes before Nebula started and they ripped it up immediately! They opened with some really spaced out sounds then Eddie ripped open the riff for Elevation. On this tour the band has added a conga player named Steve. He only played on 4 or 5 songs but it gave the band this extra tribal element and made them extend the songs a bit. Down the Highway was next. A really ripping song called Full Throttle just blew the place down. Eddie plays such great acid lead guitar, just soloing all the time but never for very long. A new song called Freedom was next. The band played a number of selections off the new record called To the Center, due out in November (I just got the advance and it is the best thing the band has done!). Vulcan Bomber and Sun Creature sounded pretty much like last time. Another great new song called So Low was next. Fly On had Steve join and some really great drumming followed. One of my favorite songs by the band is the song Smokin' Woman. It is a slow, sort of blues number with some great guitar. The band closed the set with You Mean Nothing. Even though there were only about 25 people left by this time the band were so cool and came out and played 4 more numbers! They said they would not play anymore though unless someone brought them some more beer. Jonas got it for them and they started up with Sonic Titan! Two new songs, Fall of Icarus and To the Sun followed. The last song was Devil's Liquid. I feel really fortunate that the band has come to Europe twice this year as this is one kick ass live band. The bass is thundering, the drums pounding and plenty of in-your-face acid guitar work.
Set List: Elevation, Down the Highway, Full Throttle, Freedom, Vulcan Bomber, Sun Creature, So low, Come Down, Fly On, Let it Burn, Smokin' Woman, You Mean Nothing, Sonic Titan, Fall of Icarus, To the Center, Devil's Liquid.
Reviewed by Scott Heller