Monster Magnet and Church of Misery- Lille Vega, CPH 1/20/14

Guitarist, me and singer in Church of Misery

I arrived at Lille Vega around 17 and the folks from Church of Misery were out at their van. I came up and had a nice talk with them and told them we could hang out later. They had flown in from Japan the night before but seemed fresh and in a great mood. I found the tour manager, the super nice German guy and he said I would be on the list +1 and we would work out the backstage passes after the show. 

COM bass Player

I came back at met Nils at 20:15 and we waited for Tom and Sven and had a chat with Tatsu’s girlfriend who was working the Church of Misery merch stand. They had a lot of stuff including the new DVD. COM was to start at 20:45 and play for 45mins. The show was nearly sold out, which is great for a Monday night. I met up with the super cool Swedish lady that seem to hang out with Dave whenever they are in Malmo or here. We talked a lot and had met at Vista Chino also. I saw my old friend Julie and Nik from On trial, and many others. 

COM, this was the first time for us to see them with the new guitar player (tall guy for Japanese) and they really played a killer set with a lot of spacey sounds from the MS-10 by the singer. I am not sure what the set list was but they for sure played at least two from the new record but not my favourite tracks. They did a long jammed out version of Born to Raise Hell. I think most of the people here had not seen the band and quite liked them. Great set.. 

It took them a while to get the MM stage in order and this was the first night of the tour so all the gear was newly rented and had not been really tested. The band said they soundchecked for hours today. Anyway, a bit after 10, the show started and the band played the entire new record from start to finish, which I was not expecting. The opening song (I live behind the Clouds) is just a strange one for opening an album, much less a concert. Then the band played the totally killer Lost Patrol and that was so intense… There was no way the band could peak like that again. I filmed Paradise and Hallelujah. The mindless ones and End of Time were just killer high energy space rock songs. This record really has a lot of Hawkwind feel to it when they play it live and Dave gets plenty of chances to play around with his effects pedals to make spacey sounds. They ended with Stay Tuned and did not play the bonus tracks from the record (Strobe Light Beatdown or One Dead Moon). They took a 5min break to smoke a cig and played Dopes to Infinity, Look to your Orb for the Answer (Not a long whip it fuelled version), Tractor and Space Lord.. End of show. Great.. night. 

I hungout backstage for a bit with the band, the owner of Sex beat Records and said goodbye around 01:00….  Always nice to see and chat with Dave and the band.. Great people… Oh yeah, they will be back for shows in the summer (maybe Copen Hell) and Atomic Bitchwax have a new record in the summer and will tour in August. Riotgod have a new record out in Feb in Europe, March in the USA but no plan to tour Europe… Peace..