[kj] (NKJ) Motorhead Last Night

[TB]

You gotta love a band who's frontman states before a single note is played 
"We are Motorhead and we play rock n' fuckin' roll!" and ends the show with 
the same proclamation.

I passed on this weekends' local Motorhead/Heaven and Hell/Judas Priest 
festival tour stop for two big reasons, one being it was at that hellhole 
outdoor pavilion in Devore (California) and the other being that I knew 
Heaven and Hell was playing basically an abbreviated version of the same set 
they've been playing for the last year or so leaving Judas Priest (who I can 
take or leave at this point) likely playing a full show here in a local 
arena in '09 and Motorhead playing a full set in the small Anaheim House of 
Blues tonight. The last time I saw Motorhead in a place that was smaller 
than an arena or outdoor shed was way back in '84 at the Santa Monica Civic 
during their 10th Anniversary tour (with Wendy O' Williams supporting!).

Anyway, I went as late as I figured I could get away with to miss as many of 
the opening bands as possible. I still got there early enough to catch 
"Valient Thorr" which was a kind of an old school speed metal band who all 
looked like good ol' Southern boy refugees from a white trash trailer park. 
It was kinda funny watching a shirtless, bearded, pot bellied frontman who 
makes Zack Wyld look positively urban scream anti-Bush tunes. At least they 
had a bit of a sense of humor even if their set grew old after about 2 
songs.

Motorhead came out just after 10pm and opened with "Dr Rock." Yeah it was 
pretty fuckin' loud and almost amusingly, it seemed like the soundman kept 
cranking up the volume to the point by the 3rd song the PA was feeding back 
at which he eased it back a bit was was good enough for my now deaf hearing. 
They played only two songs (I think) off the just released new album and the 
tunes sound like typical Motorhead, meaning they rock hard as fuck and sound 
like slight variations on their early 80's classics. Although a good number 
of old school classics like "Killed By Death," "Iron Fist" and show ending 
"Overkill" would make any even cursory Motorhead fan happy, they also filled 
the set with somewhat deep cuts (and odd choices depending on one's tastes) 
like "Metropolis," "Going To Brazil" and the epic old b-side "Cause You Got 
The Power." yet not playing anything off (my personal favorite album) of 
"Orgasmatron." One the other hand, one surprise highlight was an excellent 
mid-set cover of Thin Lizzy's "Rosalie" dedicated to Phil Lynott. Another 
highlight was acoustic encore song "Whorehouse Blues" with Lemmy on 
harmonica.

The band itself sounded great. Drummer Micky Dee is one of the best hard 
rock double bass drummers I've ever seen even if he looks like an even 
fatter version of Vince Neil. Guitarist Phil Campbell looks like a guy you'd 
find working on your car in a shitty car shop but he can play like nobody's 
bidness. Lemmy........ well, he's just Lemmy. It doesn't really matter that 
he's getting older 'cause he's always looked pretty rough and as long as he 
still has his long hair and those muttonchops, age ain't gonna do shit to 
him or his gravely voice. On the facial boil report, he's got one on his 
left cheek that's about the size of a normal man's fist now.

The audience was pretty much what you'd expect at a Motorhead show - mostly 
gross metalheads and old school mohawked punks of all ages with a surprising 
amount of women, and quite a few that weren't disgusting pigs. On the 
downside, typical for the Anaheim House of Blues, people violently moshed on 
the floor the entire show no matter what kind of song was played and the 
place was a total sweatbox the entire night. I pretty much stuck to the back 
of the pit about 30 feet from the stage.

Funniest line I heard all night came from a pissed off, slutty looking blond 
bimbo yelling in her boyfriend's ear as they exited the pit; "I don't mind 
someone touching me but I can't stand ugly people grabbing my tits!"

Downside was I was woken up this morning by my pissed off wife who 
discovered a pretty big dent in the rear passenger side of the rental car I 
drove to the show that probably happened in the parking lot when some 
dumbass drunk parked next to me hit the car leaving before I got to the car.

T.B.