Pretty much on a short notice and still kind of knackered from the Blackfield Festival (I actually mixed up with the dates) I headed towards Dortmund to worship one of the most entertaining US Rock bands of the 90s: MONSTER MAGNET. It was one of the hottest days so far, a really mild evening, perfectly made to drive with full speed and loud music down the highway, while I tried to remember if I ever saw MONSTER MAGNET live so far. I did not…

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I assumed that the show would be - at least nearly - sold out and started early. Arriving at the FZW I then had much time to respond on heat with cool brewski. People dropped in sparsely and immediately turned towards the beer garden. Finnish opening act :: THE SOULS :: had to face a quite empty hall when entering the stage. Luckily, the one and the other could be allured and joined us in the (still) acclimatized hall. THE SOULS are still a young but for sure much self-confident band from Southern Finland with one record up their sleeve. It’s the band’s debut entitled The Grand Confusion where they played most of the songs from. I didn’t know them before and so just had a short listening on their myspace site and probably picked up the most rocking song of them by pure coincidence. Anyway, in the beginning I was quite disappointed. Songs and show turned out to be much restrained, to say it clearly, it was boring. It took half of the set till THE SOULS came up with songs such as Wounded Souls and started to rock out. Great stuff! Don’t get me wrong ballads such as their Everything Will Be Alright are hauntingly beautiful, but not really made for such kind of live shows, even if they are played heavier than on their record. They are made for private listening at home, for reflective and contemplative moments…

However, short break, then :: MONSTER MAGNET :: took over. I guess I belong to the majority of people who discovered the New Jersey guys with their classics Dopes To Infinity and Powertrip. You know the Space Lord is coming over you… ;) Although an advance warning was given I was pretty much appalled seeing legendary Dave Wyndorf behind his micro. Well, to make it short, his lifestyle has left its impact. And thus it doesn’t wonder that there was hardly any light on stage. That drove me mad… *grrr* Ok, nothing to see, at least not that much, since his live crew, except for the bass player, wasn’t that active either. You better closed your eyes and see, the special feeling one might connect to Wyndorf and MONSTER MAGNET immediately appeared. The hall now was much crowded, it became really hot and fans rocked out. Blessedly there were a bunch of smart medics provided with boxes of water reaching out to the fans in the first rows :) Well done!
As expected the fans couldn’t do that much with the very old songs MONSTER MAGNET opened their set with, also not with the brand new material from their most recent record Mastermind. But when it came to the above mentioned classics fans almost freaked out ;)
Ok, I could not stand still either, but generally speaking I was a little bit disappointed. MONSTER MAGNET really have lost most of their glory. The show was ok, solid, but less spectacular or even memorable. Too high expectations, but I had a nice evening ;)
Setlist: Nod Scene, Tractor, Dopes To Infinity, Hallucination Bomb, Dig That Hole, Medicine, Look To Your Orb For The Warning, Dinosaur Vacume, The Right Stuff, Space Lord // Gods And Punks, Bored With Sorcery, Crop Circle, Powertrip

story & pics © Dajana