Motorhead
Roseland Ballroom
New York City, New York
September 9, 2009
Tony Pijar
Striking while the irons are blazing hot, Motorhead revisited New York City after azppearing here less than a year ago; an anomaly considering that these guys tour here sporadically. Riding the wave of renewed popularity thanks to the excellent “Motorizer” release, the band once again destroyed the Roseland Ballroom with unbridled ferocity. Support bands, Nashville Pussy and Reverend Horton Heat were perfect choices as opening bands and warmed up the crowd, as expected. Nashville Pussy’s brand of biker/southern rock and Heat’s rockabilly punk complemented Motorhead perfectly. If you think about it, Motorhead is an amalgam of a southern rock attitude with punk rhythms. It was Lemmy, after all, who said that Motorhead is not metal, but rock n roll.
One interesting point of note is that Matt Sorum was filling in behind the kit while Mickey Dee was back in Europe finishing a reality television spot! Sorum killed providing a fresh flurry on drums, evident early on with the hybrid-punk opener “Iron Fist.” “Stay Clean” followed with Lem laying out some neat bass lead throughout. Lem, peering out from underneath his black Stetson, is the total embodiment of cool. “Rock out”, the fastest track on “Motorizer” is two minutes of Ramones-style hyper-speed rock, while “Metropolis” was a brooding track carried by Sorum’s pounding back-beat. “I got Mine” and the title track from “Another Perfect Day” proved that the album was criminally under-rated back when it first came out in 1983. Nowadays, it’s seen as a classic. “Going to Brazil”, “Killed by Death” and “Bomber” closed the set, and encores, “Whorehouse Blues”, “Ace of Spades”, and “Overkill” simply proved that there’s no one like the incomparable Motorhead – never will be either!