Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Hala Tivoli, Ljubljana
Concert date: December 10, 2012
Attendance: 6,000
Ticket price: €55.00 (the loudest ring) / €44.00 (floor) €39.00 (stands)
December brought cold, snow, Christmas-and-New-Year kitsch with twinkly lights (eeeeeeee) and a full-on assault of Christmas musical abortions like Last Christmas, Bela snežinka and the plagiarist »masterpiece« Na božično noč. Thanks to Lemmy, though, this December brought something else too… something bigger… something louder! After 23 years, the loudest of the loud are back in Hala Tivoli – Motörhead. Sure, they played Metalcamp in 2007, but for another indoor show here by the British giants, after the 1989 coin/razor-blade incident, we had to wait a solid two decades. In the apocalyptic year, Lemmy’s messianic presence has finally blessed Ljubljana soil once again.
This time, a ton of grumbling was sparked by the choice of opening act. The Germans got Anthrax, and we got Niet. Legendary status or not, they really missed the mark with this pick. Still, around eight o’clock the legends of Slovenian punk faced a nicely packed floor, and Niet served up a tried-and-tested selection of tracks that over twenty years have become iron-clad classics of the Slovenian music scene. They didn’t cause any serious overheating, but the four-chord thrashing, melodic touches unusual for early punk, and a good show from singer Borut Marolt, who has stepped into the big shoes of the late Primož Habič, slowly woke up the sleepy crowd. Most of all, of course, on the hits Sam, Ruski vohun, Vijolice and Lep dan za smrt. Primary-school/high-school nostalgia woke up in me too, and I’m not ashamed to admit I liked Niet. Really liked them, even. Above all, current events are grist to Niet’s mill; if at their comeback in times of prosperity and brighter economic prospects their messages sounded empty and pointless, with every passing day the political charge of lyrics like Ritem človeštva and Perspektive shines stronger and gives a voice to the revolt of masses of dissatisfied and enraged people. Still, picking Niet to open for Motörhead leaves a bitter aftertaste, screams »connections and acquaintances« and recalls a similarly nebulous choice a few years ago, when Tide played the Bežigrad stadium before Iron Maiden.
If Motörhead were »showoffs« like Judas Priest, where Rob Halford rides onto the stage on a motorbike, Ian »Lemmy« Kilmister would come thundering in on a Tiger tank. But showmanship has always been foreign to this band. The trio strolls onto the stage with no pompous intros, Lemmy’s »Good evening« is all it takes and the roof of Hala Tivoli is gone. After almost forty years in the game, Motörhead still roar like a Boeing 747 engine at takeoff, and their amps are, Spinal Tap-style, always set to 11. To kick things off, the trio played the only song from the current album The Wörld Is Yours, I Know How To Die, and then kept firing off one classic after another. Eardrums got blown out with the very first bass lines of that mighty Rickenbacker, tearing through the ear-wrecking classics Damage Case and Stay Clean, and the band kept pummeling the packed Hala Tivoli without mercy until the very end. And thank you, Lemmy, for that! Motörhead can only be listened to this loud, so that blood starts dripping from your ears and the room starts spinning before your eyes. Classics rained down one after another, and Lemmy, Phil and Mikkey shook aces out of their sleeves like it was nothing. Instrumentally, the trio is in top form – Phil Campbell fired off mighty riffs and breathtaking solos with feather-light ease, and Mikkey Dee lives up to Lemmy’s words »the best drummer in the world.« All concert long, from behind his towering drum riser, you only hear the cannon-like thunder of the superb Mikkey, and see only his blond hair fluttering and his arms blurred by sheer speed. Since the guys aren’t spring chickens anymore, nobody expects any crazy stage antics from them, but the trio radiates true rock ‘n roll energy even if they stand stoically, pushed deep back on the stage. Icon Lemmy commands awe with his mere presence, his sheriff’s hat and his impeccably groomed sideburns, and with a great performance of a great selection of songs he once again earned his place among the most respected and influential musicians of all time. How could it be otherwise with the man who wrote the most metal and most cool lines in lyrics ever: “If you squeeze my lizard/I’ll put my snake on you,” which we heard during the eternal Killed By Death. Strictly speaking, of course, that’s about Lemmy’s herpetological leanings. Despite his status, Lemmy is only human too, and this Christmas Eve he’ll turn a more than venerable 67. At that age most people are already two meters under, pushing up daisies, while Lemmy keeps marching on with his unstoppable machinery, uncompromising as ever. The mileage few will ever reach has to come with the occasional unintelligible mumbled address and wheezing between songs, but Lemmy held it together solidly this time and had no trouble thundering through the closing bombing run of Overkill. The turnout was a surprise too, since on a cold Monday night the band was greeted by a good-spirited and almost full Hala Tivoli. Yeah, I could criticize the shortness of the set, since they left the stage after just an hour and a quarter, solo spots included, but there’s no point, because Motörhead confirmed that they’re the biggest of the big and a band that everyone respects – rockers, metalheads, bikers, punks. To paraphrase the great, wise words of Chazz from the movie Airheads – Lemmy IS God!
P.S.: Considering the festive season, they could have played the best Christmas cover of all time as a joke at the end, Run Rudolph Run, hehe.
Setlist
MOTӦRHEAD:
1. I Know How To Die
2. Damage Case
3. Stay Clean
4. Metropolis
5. Over the Top
6. The Chase Is Better Than the Catch
7. Rock It
8. You Better Run
9. The One To Sing the Blues
10. Going to Brazil
11. Killed By Death
12. Ace of Spades
— encore —
13. Are You Ready
14. Overkill
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