Monster Magnet
London Astoria
20th Nov 2000

I breezed into London last night to catch a glimpse of legendary New Jersey Heavy Rock dudes Monster Magnet playing a headlining gig at the Astoria.

Being ill prepared as usual I was greeted by a Sold Out sign on the doors and about 150 people hovering outside...Read what happened next:

Not to be put off by this ‘minor’ problem I checked out the capitalist touts and got offers ranging from £15 to £25 for a ticket and at that price they all got told to fuck off!!.

So as I contemplated my next move, a Sweet Young Thing came out of the shadows and walked up to me asking how much the touts were charging and then told me that her mates had not shown up and she was stuck with some tickets and did I want one...

”err yeah...how much?”
“£12?”
In a nanosecond “Come over here, lets do business...”

30 seconds and a wink to the touts later and I was inside for less than the door price, cool!!
The last time I saw these dudes was back in ‘93 on the Superjudge tour at The Marquee, when they were a fresh faced (what?) loud, aggressive psych tinged heavy rock band who drew heavily on early Hawkwind, Satanism and large doses of psychedelics.

7 years and another 3 albums down the line they are still a loud (er), very aggressive psych tinged heavy rock band who have now formed their own distinct (and much copied) sound. Instead of a sweat stained Cat Diesel Power T-shirt and worn jeans, frontman Dave Wyndorf tonight bursts onto stage wearing Black ‘n’ Flamed leather jeans and matching waistcoat...how Rock ‘n’ Roll...(how cool, I want a pair)...how dangerously close to 80’s Metal Glam rocksters such as Kiss & Co...but Dave manages to pull this off (because he CAN).

Monster Magnet have come of age and rightly deserve their place in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame.

People have very wrongly called Monster Magnet Heavy Metal, this they are not. If you insist on using the term Stoner Rock then maybe this fits the bill better, but I would call it good ol’ Hard Rock with one foot very firmly planted in a dark evil world of psychedelics.

The music tonight is razor sharp, dangerously heavy and usnstoppable, in fact evrything Monster Magnet should be. From the outset this was some of the best hard assed stoner rock ever to spit forth from the Astoria’s worn PA. The set was a mixture of material from across the albums, I cannot quote you a set list as I am not up to date on the last couple of albums, suffice to say that an awesome set ensued including Powertrip, Dinosaur Vacuum, Tractor and (i think) a quick dip into Brainstorm as well as some stuff from the new album.

A small psychedelic lightshow shone weird and evil imagery onto the backdrop (including a cool image from the new God Says No album cover), the guitarists tore out monster riffs, the drummer thrashed out gargantuan beats and Dave was absolutely wired, spiralling and flailing around like a demented Iggy Pop and , of course, torching the obligatory guitar half way through the set.

2 encores and some VERY VERY sexy dancers later it was all over, like being fired out of a cannon.
Just what the doctor ordered.

p.s Hey Guys...come back soon...and bring THOSE dancers...

pOoTer - November 2000