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LIVE REVIEW: MONSTER MAGNET, Perth WA, 3 Apr 2014

| 9 April 2014 | Reply

LIVE REVIEW: MONSTER MAGNET, Perth WA, 3 Apr 2014
Thursday 3 April, 2014 – Amplifier Bar, Perth, Western Australia
Review and photography by Shane Pinnegar

Monster Magnet’s last couple of trips to Perth came in the wake of his addiction to prescription drugs and recovery, a time when he seemed to have lost his way personally and musically, so it was a joy to hear last year’s The Last Patrol return to the band’s dynamic psych rock roots.

Monster Magnet live in Perth 3 April 2014 by Shane Pinnegar  (20)

CHAINSAW HOOKERS have nothing left to prove to anyone in this town, but they never let that slacken their pace and seem incapable or performing below their best. Tonight’s support slot – the latest in Who’s Who of touring luminaries – is as pummelling as always, even if the crowd was thin on the ground when they kicked off a mere fifteen minutes after the doors swung open.

Blazing duo KING OF THE NORTH finally hit Perth like a rock n’ roll tsunami, making the kind of noise The Black Keys would if they were trucker metalheads on a meth-fuelled long haul across the desert. Gathering up monolithic sounds that touch on heads down rock, boogie, metal and stoner doom, these guys have a buzz about them that only comes with being destined for bigger things.

From the word ‘GO!’ MONSTER MAGNET are a swirling orgy of trance-like psych riffs, flashing lights and crushing space-force. With leader Dave Wyndorf recently publicly decrying heavy metal and MM’s place in that pantheon, it came as a sweet tease when he promised songs only from their seminal first four records plus a few from last year’s tour de force Last Patrol, and that’s exactly what they delivered, starting with an extended wig-out on Last Patrol itself.

Part MC5, Stooges and The Count Five garage mayhem, part volume abusing freakazoids, it’s easy to see why they were adopted by the stoner metal crowd, but apart from denim & volume, Monster Magnet share nothing in common with traditional metal tonight.

Their cover of Donovan’s Three King Fishers is part Pictures Of Matchstick Men, part Black Sabbath, with Wyndorf calling it ‘very psychedelic – and I want you to be very psychedelic too!’ Indeed, there are far more people dancing esoterically than there are headbanging.

There’s an incandescent madness to the show as the triple guitar riffs circle your brain through Dopes To Infinity, Spine of God and Powertrip, and the tripped out lyrics tie knots around you. Wyndorf spends time with his back to the stage fiddling with a raised guitar rig that manipulates feedback in ever freakier squalls of sound, and whether he’s bastardising American Pie, sounding like a heavy pace rock Doors, or cackling at a nubile in the front row ‘Oh I could take a bite outta you!’ the intuitive interplay between the band members is mesmeric and majestic, while on trippy closer Space Lord, Wyndorf reasserts himself as a psych rock cult leader.

This review first published in X-Press Magazine’s 9 April 2014 issue

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries

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Editor, 100% ROCK MAGAZINE

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