Monster Magnet and Black Spiders- Lille Vega, Copenhagen 19/11/11

Monster Magnet were back in town. Last time they were here 2 years ago on the Mastermind tour, they played at Loppen. I sadly missed that show as it was a Sunday but I saw the show in Malmö and hung out with the band and Dave for an hour alone. Anyway, I showed up at Lille Vega and ran into one of the guys from the opening act, (Tiger, the drummer) and he let me in so I went up stairs and talked with Tim Cronin for a while and he was looking great, having lost 100 pounds! He took me to the backstage room and I met up with Bob, Garrett and Jim, who were hanging out. Phil came a bit later. Had a coke and we talked about all their different band projects. Riotgod have a new CD out now and are coming to Europe in Feb for a 2-3 week tour. So far no Scandinavian dates had been booked. Atomic Bitchwax will be back in Europe in April. Phil said he and Todd had like 15 songs that they were planning to record in Jan and Feb to pull together the first Capricorn record. Phil said he and Dave had also made demos for tracks for a new Monster Magnet record that they hope to start recording in April- May next year. Monster Magnet will play Wacken in Germany in 2012 and do some other dates around that next August.  That’s the insider news I can talk about.

          The soundcheck was fun as they played almost a complete version of Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy. Garrett plays in a band in New Jersey that plays rock covers so he can kick into any number of fun tracks. They did some Monster Magnet tracks as well and Tim did the vocals since Dave does not do soundchecks. That was fun. Afterwards, Bob, Garrett and I headed out to get some food and went down Istegade (this is a mainstreet running down into the red light district behind the main train station). We had some really nice food at the Istegade’s Apotek. They went back to get a nap and I went over to visit a friend who lives on Istegade.

Black Spiders (UK)

          I came back about 15 mins to 21 so I could catch Black Spiders. I had been chatting a bit with these UK guys and they were super cool people. The place was pretty packed, even with Clutch also playing tonight in town and that was sold out. 10 years ogo or more, I would have known a lot of people at a Monster Magnet concert but those people hard ever go to shows anymore, home with the kids, etc… Anyway, Black Spiders really rocked the place. They have the attitude of a punk rock band but really rock out like a mix of a bit of AC/DC and say Dozer (Swedish stoner rock). They played 30 mins and gave it 100%. Crowd really liked them. Top guys as well.

          Monster Magnet started just after 10 and I thought they would play Dopes from start to finish but they actually totally changed the order and started with a totally spaced out version of Vertigo, the last track on the record. Dave said back in 1994 they used to open with this but only did it for about 10 shows. I was at one of them at Pearl Street in Northampton, MA. Anyway, it was really psyched out, heavy and very cool. Sound mix was excellent as well, Loud, lots of delay on his voice and Dave’ making all the space sounds with his rack of delay and effects pedals was cool. I Fly was really heavy also as the next song. Then Look for your Orb for the answer, as a bit disappointing for me as in the old days this was much longer and jamming with long guitar solos and they basically got rid of that now and it is like 5 mins. The crowd went wild when they kicked into Dopes for Infinity. Powerful stuff. Dave’s voice was fantastic. The highlight of the Dopes set for me was hearing I talk to Planets and Third Alternative (one of my all time favourite MM songs, also Dave’s!). IT was very massive. The band is playing really fantastic these days. King of Mars ended the main set and was totally spaced out at the end and really quite long. Wow. So the main set finished and they had played the entire record except Negasonic Teenage Warhead and sure enough it was the first encore track. The set list said Five years ahead of my Time but sadly, they skipped it this night. Hallucination Bomb was pretty cool and the only recent song they played. We got the expected tracks Powertrip and Space Lord to end the show. A really excellent concert for me. I had a great time.

Set List: Vertigo,  I control, I Fly, Look to your Orb, Dopes to Infinity, All Friends and Kingdom Come, Ego-The Living Planet, Blow em Off, Dead Christmas, Third Alternative, Masterbuner, King of Mars. Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Hallucination Bomb, Powertrip, Space Lord

          Afterwards, I had a backstage pass (thanks Jim!) and could hang out with some nice ladies and the guys. Dave was pretty busy reuniting with a wonderful Swedish girl from Lund, whom I had met a few times before. I did speak to him and he actually told me that he did sit down and listen to the entire Oresund Space Collective Sleeping with the Sunworm CD I gave him last time and he loved it! Thanks Dave.. It was a great night. Wonderful, cool and very down to earth people! See ya next time guys..