They Are Motorhead
This is Two-Handed Man's
review of the show Motorhead played in Toronto on April 27th, 2002,
written while listening to the Thin Lizzy record Johnny the Fox Meets
Jimmy the Weed.
For those of you who don't know, Motorhead
is a legendary rock band formed in 1975 by a man named Lemmy, who comes
as close as anyone can to personifying everything you love and everything
you hate about rock and roll. No life of quiet desperation here--Lemmy's
done more living than the average 9-to-5 Joe Lunchpail could cram into
10 lifetimes. After receiving a few guitar lessons from Jimi Hendrix
himself, he played bass for Hawkwind, the lords of space rock. Within
two months of Hawkwind firing him for rocking too hard, Motorhead was
formed and on the road. In the subsequent two-and-a-half decades, Motorhead
has, despite constant mishandling and indifference from record company
weasels, recorded over 200 classic songs and created for themselves
a unique and lofty place in rock history.
Since the band's formation, many musical
trends--disco, new wave, 80's hair-metal, grunge, etc. etc.--have come
and gone, but Motorhead refuses to go away. Lemmy, who turns 55 this
year, continues to write, to play, to rock harder than punks half his
age, and to earn the unwavering respect of all who encounter him. An
unrepentant survivor, his story is an inspiring one of enduring against
the odds, and the rewards that come from doing so. To learn more, visit
www.imotorhead.com, buy a Motorhead CD, and check out their live show
the next time it rolls into your town.
The venue for the Toronto show was a nightclub
called The Docks, right on the waterfront, not far from the CN Tower
(see photograph below). The first band to perform was Speedealer, who,
as their lead singer reminded us several times throughout their set,
are from Texas. I think these guys are great; and my only complaint
with their set is that it was far too short. I suggest you pick up their
Y2K release Here Comes Death, or their June 2002 release Second Sight.
Their website is
www.speedealeronline.com. The next two acts were Razor
and Voivod. I didn't enjoy this part of the evening at all, especially
Razor: C-grade, over-the-hill metal. Unfortunately, Motorhead often
get lumped in with lame metal acts they have little or nothing in common
with. For the record, Motorhead are NOT heavy metal. Motorhead ARE rock
and roll. A real music fan will recognize that, behind all the deafening
noise, many Motorhead song structures have more in common with Eddie
Cochran, surf music, and rockabilly music than with Piledriver or Iron
Maiden. Calling them heavy metal just because they play loud and happen
to have long hair is just lazy journalism, like when 70's rock critics
would say The Damned and Elvis Costello were both 'punk' acts. Yeah,
right.
I guess Motorhead don't have much of a
stage show compared to KISS or something like that, but they don't need
it. Lemmy (bass/vocals) Mickey (drums) and Phil (guitar) have more than
enough talent and charisma to blow you away without any bells and whistles.
They worked at a breathless pace the entire night, but their set list
smartly mixed up different types of songs from throughout their career.
Make no mistake: behind the humour, the energy, the tough-guy swagger,
these guys can really play, they really know what they're doing, and
they really understand rock music. Songs performed include: 'We Are
Motorhead,' 'Civil War,' 'Brave New World,' 'Damage Case,' 'Going To
Brazil,' 'Ramones,' 'Metropolis,' 'God Save The Queen,' 'Sacrifice,'
'Born To Raise Hell,' 'Love For Sale,' 'Shoot You In The Back,' 'Nothing
Up my Sleeve,' 'Just `Cause You Got The Power,' 'Ace Of Spades,' 'Killed
By Death,' and 'Overkill.'
Before the song 'Ramones,' Lemmy paid
tribute to '...a man from New York City who was a good friend of mine,
and a good friend of yours, too: Mr. Joey Ramone.' Motorhead is playing
that song on every stop of their current tour as their way of mourning
Joey's untimely death. Their touching and classy tribute caught me by
surprise and actually choked me up a bit.
Thankfully, Lemmy didn't waste my time
by performing 'The Game'-a Motorhead song that serves as the entrance
music for the World Wrestling Federation superstar HHH. While it's cool
that the connection with the massively-popular WWF has helped Motorhead
financially and exposed them to a new worldwide audience--they even played
live at 2001's WWF Wrestlemania extravaganza--they've written dozens
of better songs, and it's kind of a drag to think of hordes of mouth-breathing
wrestling fans, ignorant of superb Motorhead tunes like 'Stone Dead
Forever,' 'The Watcher,' 'Burner,' or 'The Chase Is Better Than The
Catch,' coming to the show just to hear 'the wrestling song.' And wrestling
freaks probably aren't the most intelligent demographic Lemmy's ever
played to...
I bet the kid who stood next to me just
LOVES wrestling. He used the up-tempo music as an excuse to 'mosh,'
and his idea of moshing included repeatedly shoving the little girl
in front of him, almost knocking her off her feet. I guess your parents
forgot to tell you, so I'm telling you now, kid: Don't shove a woman!
Not even witnessing loutish antics like
that could kill my buzz. I always find it reassuring, somehow, to be
reminded that no matter what kind of week I'm having, Lemmy and the
boys are still out there on the road, still getting it done.
The show ended, as it often does, with
'Overkill,' and sheets of noise cascading over each other as the band
said goodbye. Weirdly, the last thing Lemmy shouted to the crowd was
something along the lines of, 'We are Motorhead-please don't forget
us!' Lemmy, the possibility of anyone who was at the docks on April
27th, 2002 ever forgetting it is definitely NOT something you have to
worry about.
Trust me.
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Check out these photos of the CN Tower, Lemmy at his soundcheck, and Motorhead doing what they do best. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.
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