Motorhead Live In Ventura, CA
By
The Upright Man,
Headbanger
Sunday, April 28, 2002 @ 10:59 PM
| Motorhead Live At The Ventura
|
 |
|
There were as many Iron Maiden shirts in the audience as there were Motorhead shirts, and that surprised me. In line in front of me, a 21-year-old fool, there was a 16-year-old kid who stole money from his mom to buy a t-shirt ("So what if she grounds me? At least I'll have my shirt!"), and behind me, a 40-year-old man who was gonna call in sick to work Monday because he was planning on drinking beer and banging his head all night. I love rock 'n roll.
The first of three local bands to open, Surf to Black, were okay. Metal with punk influences. They did a punked-up version of Maiden's “The Trooper” as their last song, and it sounded good. The second band sucked, being too nu-metal for my tastes, and the last band was exceptional, but for their newly acquired singer who lent the music a nice rap-rock flavor, which in turn left a bad taste in my mouth.
Motorhead took the stage. Lemmy's bass looks like some weird vintage thing from the mid ‘70s, and so did his clothes. Wearing a jacket much like the one on the Best Of CD, bell-bottomed pants, and white, high-heeled, zip-up boots, Lemmy looked quite dapper. Phil was wearing these weird star patterned blue jeans, and his guitar had a sticker proclaiming, "I fucked your girlfriend." I don't doubt that at all, somehow. Our beloved drummer, Mikkey, is sporting a Motorhead t-shirt, blue jeans, and amazingly feathered hair. Cool.
The setlist was fairly great. Opening with "Motorhead," the band sounded great. Vocals were a little lost, but amidst the moshing and me being the only person to crowd surf, who cares? I don't remember the setlist, but I do remember that they played "Killed by Death," which was great, "God Save the Queen," and a really nice highlight, they paid respect to Joey Ramone (Lemmy: "Always remember Joey. He was a friend and we miss him.") by doing an extra loud version of, "R.A.M.O.N.E.S."
The encore begun with “Ace of Spades,” and that supercharged the crowd. Everybody was moving except the dipshit in front of me, who would elbow me in the ribs every time I touched him. He wasn't headbanging, his fist never punched the air; he just stood there like a lump on a couch watching Friends. Me and some punker shoved him out of the way and made him get out. People, if you're gonna be in the front row, you're gonna get shoved. There's no getting around it. If you don't want to get shoved, move back.
Anyway, I don't remember what they played after “Ace of Spades,” except that they did the extra long version, and we loved it. After the show, I bought a $30 t-shirt, then hung around the tour bus, hoping to get my CD signed. Phil came out and signed it, and was very cool. An hour later, Lemmy came out and signed it. He's shorter than I expected, and his warts MUCH larger than I expected. Very cool guy, though. Answered questions and signed CDs and ticket stubs, then got on the bus. At some point in the evening, a tour bus guy came out and gave a few of us some beers. Got home after a three hour drive only to find my sister's boyfriend had stolen all of my Rollins Band CDs as a joke. Bastard.
Send your live reviews to [email protected]
|
