Monster Magnet / Gluecifer / The Quill
12 April 2004
Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Thanks to Nik at Work Hard, Johan, complete with photo pass, and I are in the venue early with no hassles and ready to enjoy a Bank Holiday of ROCK!
As usual, it would seem a good portion of the crowd have decided to have an extra pint in the pub rather than catch the opening act. Unlucky for them as The Quill put in a storming performance.
The Quill have been putting out albums since 1995, but only being familiar with latest offering, Hooray! It`s A Deathtrip, personally I was pleased that the first four tracks of their short set were from that album and were also my four favourites.
Spinning Around (not the Kylie song!) opens proceedings and vocalist Markus Ekwall acts out the title, twirling his mic stand in the air with similar poses to David Coverdale. Audibly, however, it`s often said but true, Ekwall is a dead ringer for Chris Cornell in his prime. Indeed, second song Come What May is possibly the best song Soundgarden never wrote.
American Powder shows off a more metal sound not dissimilar to bassist Roger Nilsson other band Spiritual Beggars. Nilsson seems more at home with The Quill and is animated throughout the set, repeatedly holding his bass aloft pointing skywards.
Christian Carlsson, who`s proud brother is stood next to us, pulls out a Jimmy Page style twin necked Gibson and peels off the gorgeous Zeppelin-ish opening to Hammerhead. The venue is filling up and this was certainly the song that turned a few heads tonight.
Being the last night of a very long European tour a few band collaborations were to be expected and the first of these sees Danny Young of Gluecifer assisting George Atlagic on the drums during the extended jam section in Hole In My Head.
Voodoo Caravan closes a short set which has steadily won over those present and it`s to be hoped The Quill will be back soon with more time to impress.
The Quill Set List:
Spinning Round / Come What May / American Powder / Hammerhead / Hole In My Head / Voodoo Caravan
Again, I`m also only familiar with the latest album from Gluecifer, Automatic Thrill and like The Quill, Gluecifer lean heavily on their new release with an additional single song from each of their previous four albums.
Gluecifer are cut from similar Scandinavian rock`n`roll cloth to the likes of The Hellacopters and Backyard Babies. Apparently they started life 10 years ago, but the maturity on stage tonight would make you think they`ve been going a lot longer than that. In fact, having never seen a picture of them, I`d expected Gluecifer to carry a similar look to Backyard Babies. However, as they plough through the first four tracks of their latest album I realise we were stood right next to them in the pub and hadn`t even thought they were coming to the gig.
I`d also expected something more chaotic, however this was the planned 40th and final date of a European tour that has taken in 16 different countries and Gluecifer were as tight as the proverbial.
A Call From The Other Side sees neat guitar interplay from Raldo Useless, who certainly doesn`t live up to his name, and Captain Poon who later during the breakdown section of Black Book Lodge is introduced as the new pope.
Shaking So Bad brings to mind old style rock`n`roll with singer Biff Malibu crooning like Elvis whilst Reversed brings back the punk edge. The band close with a cover of Cheap Trick`s Surrender which sees the second collaboration of the night with Phil Caivano of Monster Magnet adding guitar, meanwhile a friend of Monster Magnet does star jumps!
It`s sad but true that the mainstream, that is currently embracing rock, is image obsessed and whilst the one dimensional likes of The Hives are being held aloft as rock`n`roll saviours, Gluecifer, with an abundance of cool tunes are likely to be overlooked for not possessing the right "look".
Gluecifer Set List:
Automatic Thrill / Take It / Here Come The Pigs / Car Full Of Stash / I Got A War / Get The Horn / Rock Throne / Shaking So Bad / Black Book Lodge / Reversed / Surrender (Cheap Trick cover)
So to Monster Magnet. The last club gig I`d seen had dancing girls and the last festival appearance saw Dave Wyndorf set fire to the stage, so to say I was expectant was an understatement. So, did they deliver? …oh yes!
Following a reshuffle of the line-up, Monster Magnet now actually seem more like a band than Wyndorf`s backing band. Yes, Wyndorf is still the obvious core, but the rock posturing of guitarists Ed Mundell and Phil Caivano on cleverly raised platforms help pull together what seemed once the Wyndorf show.
Three of the opening four songs are taken from Powertrip with Bummer as an unusual but effective opener. Supercruel is the first offering from new album Monolithic and from the singing along it would seem the majority here have picked up a copy. Latest single Unbroken (Hotel Baby) in particular is greeted like an old classic.
Taking us back to the Superjudge album, Wyndorf plays guitar on Dinosaur Vacume which segues neatly into Brainstorm. Going even further back, the trippy Zodiac Lung makes an appearance with hypnotic liquid projections flowing across the backdrop.
Jim Baglino`s downtuned bass intro to Monolithic is just as dirty as on record, whilst a fired up Space Lord ends with the opening salvo from Kiss` Love Gun.
At the start of the encore Wyndorf asks "Who wants some spacerock?" and that`s what we get. First with Robert Calvert`s The Right Stuff and then for 15 intense minutes we are pulverised by Spine Of God. Wyndorf is like a man possessed during the later, staring intently at the crowd, ranting and squeezing in lyrics from American Pie whilst the band grind out mesmerizing riff after riff. The projections really are effective for this song, particularly the repeated exploding skull. I believe members of The Quill were on stage at one point and the song comes to a crashing finale as Wyndorf smashes a guitar.
This was a fittingly explosive performance to end Monster Magnet`s European tour and it was encouraging to see they had sold out the venue tonight. Johan and I left eagerly looking forward to their appearance at Sweden Rock this summer.
Monster Magnet Set List:
Bummer / Tractor / Supercruel / Powertrip / Melt / Unbroken (Hotel Baby) / Dinosaur Vacume / Brainstorm / Zodiac Lung / Radiation Day / Monolithic / Negasonic Teenage Warhead / Space Lord / The Right Stuff / Spine Of God
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