17-02-2014 Monster Magnet

Supports: Church of Misery; Venue: Tivoli Oudegracht, Utrecht (Netherlands)
By: Sabine van Gameren

Church of Misery and Monster Magnet were playing Tivoli Oudegracht this night and they attracted a diverse group of audience. Young and old, it could be a family trip.

Doom formation Church of Misery was up first. Their slow and hypnotic sounds start to make an impression and with only the red lights to create the atmosphere the band does not waste time to show people what they are doing. It is rather psychedelic and frontman Hideki is having his synths also, which bring the music a bit more threatening than before.

Five songs in their setlist, all rather long and although the length of the tracks is perhaps a bit longer than other bands would have the guys have so much going on in one track that you cannot lose your attention with it. It seems like the audience takes it in slowly, towards the end more into it as the band works with faster coming highlights towards the end of their set which makes the whole more energetic. A good set for the Japanese, a support you may like again perhaps even as headliner.

Stars of the evening were Monster Magnet. They had to start off with some technical issues, but they did not seem too bothered to let that have an effect on their mood. The band came to present their latest album called “Last Patrol” which they played completely. The Stoner formation has the audience on their hands quite easily, frontman Dave Wyndorf gets a hero treatment while many are chanting his name and seem to idolize them. Though, he is not the only one who puts a remarkable stamp on the music. Less attention received are both guitarists who seem to subside in that role but not neglect to throw in some great riffs that stand out.

After having the songs of the album done the band leaves the stage for quite a while, ironically the last song played was “Stay Tuned”, but eventually returns to give a few more classics to the fans. This results into madness in the crowd. People seemed to enjoy these a lot, the catchiness leads into the audience singing along and a little mosh starts. It all ends with the track “Space Lord” and it’s good to see the band play their whole new album, but obviously those classics can’t be left out. Without those the show was obviously not complete for the audience so the encore was very welcome to make the show top level.