Motorpsycho 1993-09-21

Motorpsycho, Rote Fabrik, Zürich, SUI - 21.09.1993
Source: Unknown audience > ana? > CD-R > FLAC

Setlist: Home Of The Brave / Flesh Harrower / Feedtime / Mountain / Giftland -> The House At Pooneil Corners / Demon Box -> Step Inside Again -> Walk On Guilded Splinters -> Demon Box / The Golden Core / Nothing To Say

The sound ain't on top of the world here, but it's quite clear, maybe lacking some bass, but in any case it really manges to capture & transmit the wild energy unleashed by Motorpsycho this september evening back in 1993. They are simply on fire, on the verge of complete meltdown!

"Home of the brave" is raw, pure, kick-ass horse power, with a potentially deadly, intense & insane noise jam in the middle, and also some Matt Burt-samples here & there. After some inaudible jokes from Bent and monkey-like screams from someone in the audience they head into "Fleshharrower", a rendition covered in barbed wire. "Feedtime" is no less so. I'm wondering if maybe the "Rote Fabrik" got its name because of getting red hot after Motorpsycho played there? It wouldn't surprise me! This gig is btw the first one at this venue, and they didn't return before 2002 I think (or maybe 2001). Anyway, the reader is probably not surprised to learn that the next song, "Mountain", carries on the show with an equally heavy force. The middle part of the song jumps right out into space, with the familiar "Echoes"-ish groove, and Snah doing some really delicate and melodic soloing, and Geb keeps the train perfectly on time and helps fill out the sound at the same time. Is that Deathprod I also hear there? If I'm not mistaken he was with them on this tour, and judging by the sounds here that's very much possible! In any case they build up their mountain to a big and powerful one, in a masterful way. The overall structure is very much as one expects.

After "Mountain" they quickly get the "Giftland" intro-loop starting, and Bent announces that "This is a powerballad" and everyone should light their cigarette lighters (I think that's what he says). Well, the word "powerballad" certainly gets redefined here! But in a strange way it fits - i mean - "Giftland" can be called a ballad, but it's damn powerful! The song had its live debut less than 3 weeks earlier (september 2.), and of course wasn't officially released yet. Luckily Bent's voice is in better shape now, so Snah doesn't have to sing it this time. This has got to be one of the coolest of the early versions of "Giftland" that exists on tape - it's quite simply gorgeous - because just when you expect the song to explode into the magnificent climax - it doesn't! Do you wanna know what happens? Without a warning they take a detour straight into "The House at Pooneil Corners"!!! How strange, and cool! It leaves "Giftland" as simply a gorgeous, and somewhat strange, ballad! And with the way cool and unexpected segue into "Pooneil" this gets 5 stars in my book!

"Demon Box". Ah. Yes. That one. There's not much I feel I can say! Take all the power and energy displayed earlier this night, add it together and multiply the result by your favorite high number, and you're close. And oh, they end up enteraining us for over 24 minutes with this "Box". Please fasten seat belts. Noisespacenoisecrazynoisemeltdownmindblowingyeah! The middle jam is heavily dominated by Deathprod and various synths - way cool actually! And yeah, then we get "Step Inside Again" coming out of that semi-chaotic jam, a somewhat noisy, scary version. It continues into a "walk on guilded splinters" before they explode back into the Box. It ends quietly, and they go almost straight into "The Golden Core". Or, that is, they start the Core, but stops, perhaps to let the monkey-impersonator do his thing? (He does!)

Disc 2 starts here, and the sound is slightly different. Different source? Or perhaps just the taper moved to a better location? The sound is now quite a bit clearer at least. "The Golden Core" starts its magnificense, and what can one say? There are really not many words capable of doing this song justice. Perhaps the germans have one? Anyhow it's a bit disappointing that Snah sings, but this time he actually does a quite decent job! And it all gets sweeter when Bent joins in on the "a time for everything" part.

They end it all with "Nothing To Say", which is missing from the official setlist at the unoff.