Motorhead /
The Reverend Horton Heat/ Nashville Pussy
Metropolis
Montréal, Québec Canada
September 3rd, 2009
By Ryan Sparks
It had been
almost a year to the day since British speed metal legends
Motorhead unleashed their nineteenth studio album Motorizer.
After performing dates with Heaven and Hell on the Masters of
Metal Tour last summer, the band barnstormed their way through
their own short North American headlining tour in the fall of
2008 with The Misfits.
The road goes
on forever and with the band only set to begin work on a new
album in early 2010 Lemmy and crew returned to our fair city,
and to the very same club, to pummel our eardrums as the song
goes, One More Fucking Time. With The Rev. Horton Heat and
Nashville Pussy in tow and a ticket price running around forty
dollars at the door, the return on investment definitely looked
promising. Not long after this run of North American dates was
announced word came out of the bands camp that longtime drummer
Mikkey Dee would have to leave the tour temporarily at some
point to begin filming a reality television show in Sweden. At
first it looked like he would only be taking part in the first
and last dates of their current swing, before ex-Guns ‘n Roses
skin beater Matt Sorum was due to take over. However, when the
band pulled into town Mikkey was indeed in the house, and as
much as I respect Matt’s talents I had some trepidation on how
he’d handle this gig. After all it does take a special breed of
musician to play with the speed and precision that Motorhead’s
music so rightfully demands.
Nashville
Pussy was on first at 8:00 pm sharp, and I was a bit surprised
by their appearance when they appeared onstage, figuring instead
that they would be in the middle slot. If they were in any way
disappointed about having to warm up the crowd you never would
have guessed it. The band slammed straight into the dirty, three
chord swagger of “Speed Machine", the opening track off their
latest album From Hell To Texas. Although limited to only
thirty minutes these seasoned hell raisers didn't waste a single
minute of their allotted time. Singer/ guitarist Blaine
Cartwright worked the crowd with his whiskey soaked vocals while
wife Ruyter Suys handled the majority of the posturing, as well
as the guitar solos, which came in short, explosive bursts.
Cartwright also endeared himself to the crowd with a few pro-pot
and pro-Canadian rants in between songs. But other than that the
band pretty much just stuck to their guns and tried to cram in
as many three chord anthems as possible. Their set was pretty
heavy on new material as they ripped through tracks like "Lazy
Jesus", "I'm So High", "Drunk Driving Man" and "Late Great USA"
all off the new disc. The crowd's reaction was one of the best
I've seen afforded to an opening band in a long time, hell there
was even a few crowd surfers getting into the act early, the
true measure of a band connecting with their audience. By the
time they finished off with a raucous version of “Go
Motherfucker Go" from their debut album Let Them Eat Pussy,
one had the feeling that if the evenings proceedings weren't on
such a tight schedule that the band could have easily returned
for an encore. Pussy kicked ass and my only real complaint
about their compact set was that it didn't afford Suys enough
time to strip down to her skivvies, something she's been known
to do quite frequently.
The middle
slot on this eclectic triple bill belonged to The Rev. Horton
Heat a trio from Texas featuring Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath on
guitar and vocals. Formed in the mid 80's the band plays a
unique brand of what they call "Psychobilly" music which
combines old school rockabilly with everything from garage rock
to punk and big band swing. However you want to label it, after
seeing these guys tear it up for almost forty five minutes, I
can assure you it’s effective. The crowd by this point was
packed in tighter than a can of sardines but that didn't slow
down the waiters and waitresses who seemed to glide effortlessly
through the throngs with their trays of beer held safely over
their heads.
The Reverend
and his band, drummer Paul Simmons and longtime member Jimbo
Wallace on the upright bass, offered up a varied selection of
material from their back catalogue of twelve albums, including
their newly released disc Laughin' and Cryin' with the
Reverend Horton Heat. The band has always been about
combining top notch musicianship with healthy doses of humor and
the new songs they injected into their set, "Please Don't Take
The Baby To The Liquor Store", "Drinkin and Smokin' Cigarettes"
and "Ain't No Saguaro In Texas" continue the tradition. Armed
with his trademark Gretsch 6120 hollow body guitar the dapper
looking Heath displayed an impressive arsenal of riffs as the
band tackled “Big Sky” off of 1994’s excellent Liquor In The
Front album, and a two and half minute blast through
“Jimbo’s Song” from Space Heater released in 1998. The
real coup for the audience though was when The Reverend dipped
all the way back to the first album Smoke ‘em If You Got ‘em
for an absolutely lethal rendition of “Psychobilly Freakout”.
This track sounds like an evil cross between the twangy surf
guitar of Dick Dale and the agro punk stylings of The Sex
Pistols. The crowd was definitely into as well judging by the
sudden increase of willing surfers. All in all it was the
perfect way to end their triumphant set.
With the crowd
sufficiently amped up and well lubricated by this point, the
anticipation of the almighty Head was reaching it’s climax. As
the last of the stage equipment was checked and deemed ready to
go the lights dimmed once again and Mickey Dee climbed aboard
his massive drum riser to take his place behind his impressive
looking double bass kit. Guitarist Phil Campbell saluted the
crowd, while Lemmy appeared clad in black, cigarette in mouth
and sporting his signature beige Rickenbacker bass. After he
strummed a few quick notes he stepped up to the microphone (set
in it’s usual high position of course) and delivered the bands
trademark line in his gravelly voice, “We are Motorhead and we
play rock ‘n roll”. No phrase carries as much simplicity or
weight as that one, well except for maybe Lemmy’s comments back
in the day that if the band moved in next door to you that your
lawn would die. Ok so “We are Motorhead and we play rock ‘n
roll” and it’s straight into the opening one two killer
combination of “Iron Fist” and “Stay Clean” to kick off the
evening’s festivities. Almost immediately the mosh pit and crowd
surfing intensified. Not to mention the first batch (of many) of
empty plastic beer cups that began hurtle through the air.
Thankfully no one was either stupid or drunk enough to think of
throwing a full cup at anyone onstage.
With my
earplugs firmly in place I watched in awe as this rock ‘n roll
institution rolled out classic cuts like “Metropolis”, two songs
off the at the time ill received Another Perfect Day
Album from 1983, the title track plus “I Got Mine”, and
interspersed them with newer tracks “In The Name Of Tragedy”
(complete with Dee’s drum solo) off of Inferno, “One
Night Stand” from Kiss Of Death and “Going To Brazil”
At one point
early on Campbell asked the crowd if it was loud enough and if
we’d like to hear it louder. Are you freakin’ kidding me? If you
need to know only one thing about Motorhead, it’s they are hands
down the loudest band on the planet. Always have been, always
will be. I think their blatant disregard for their fans’
eardrums is probably what has endeared them to so many loyal
Motorheadbangers over the years. I wasn’t about to take any
chances with my own ‘earing that’s for damned sure.
Speaking of
Phil Campbell I think the guy has to be one of the most
underrated guitarists in the metal world. When critics generally
speak of Motorhead they write them off as nothing but speed and
simplicity. While there is some merit in that assessment I still
feel that Phil’s adept skills as a player have been overshadowed
at times by this, which is a shame really. It’s also hard to
believe that he’s been in the band for over twenty five years
now, making him the second longest serving member of the
Motorhead , next to the immortal Mr. Kilminster of course.
As for Mickey
Dee, what can you say about this man’s talents as a drummer that
hasn’t been said countless times before? Ever since he hopped on
board this raging locomotive known as Motorhead back in the
early 90’s he continues to prove himself to be the consummate
man for the job. Ok, so maybe he throws in one too many fills
every now and then, but he’s the absolute master of speed and
precision, not to mention his level of stamina is off the
charts. I think that when Sorum does take over, the band will
actually have to slow down the tempos, albeit ever so slightly
just to accommodate him. That kind of gives you an idea of how
much Dee means to this band.
Then there’s
Lemmy, a true iconic rock ‘n roll outlaw if there ever was one.
How he’s able to bring it night after night at that volume is
almost beyond comprehension. Let’s not forget the fact that not
only is he in his early 60’s, but he’s probably been living on a
straight diet of Jack ‘n Coke’s and Marlboros for the past forty
odd years as well. The man has always played by his own rules
and he is as anti-rock star as they come. What you see is always
what you get, straight up and no bullshit. Motorhead’s ethos is
nothing more than an extension of their own leader’s
personality.
After blasting
the loyal minions for almost ninety minutes the set wound down
in splendid fashion with a ferocious run through of the
aforementioned “Going To Brazil” before they wrapped up it up
with two older gems, “Killed By Death”, which goes back to the
mid 80’s, and “Bomber” which has been in their set forever.
After Lemmy quipped “Don’t worry we’ll be back, you know how it
works, you make some noise and we come back”, the band returned
for the first of three songs for their encore. A small bass drum
and hi-hat was set up stage left for Dee, and together with Phil
they strummed their acoustic guitars, while Lemmy’s mic was
positioned at center stage and they went into straight into
“Whorehouse Blues”. Everyone knew what was coming next as they
wasted little time before tearing straight into their
definitive anthem “Ace of Spades”. With barely a second to catch
their breath, they segued into the final song of the evening,
“Overkill”, yet another quintessential, vintage Motorhead
number. The band left the stage in total darkness and the
instruments were left to feedback for what seemed liked a
lifetime, but probably only amounted to a couple of minutes,
before the house lights finally went up signaling the conclusion
of the show.
I know
longtime fans have been somewhat critical of the fact that the
band hasn’t changed their set list around that much the last few
years, and it’s been suggested that maybe they’ve become a
little too predictable. While there might be some truth to that,
it’s hard to envision a band of Motorhead’s stature becoming too
complacent. Sure the naysayers will always offer that it’s
basically the same old same old and the band hasn’t really
evolved. The changes to the band’s sound over the years have
been subtle but I still think that their strength continues to
lie in the fact that they don’t deviate that much or try to
sound like something they’re not. In the end Lemmy could give a
rat’s ass about what you think . He’s only interested in giving
you a LOUD, no frills, in your face show every night. They
are Motorhead, they play rock ‘n roll, warts and all. You
just don’t need anything else.
