After having last set foot in Australia during the 2011 Soundwave Festival, American stoner-rock band Monster Magnet finally returned to our shores. With their new album The Last Patrol described recently by vocalist Dave Wyndorf in an interview for Tone Deaf as “probably one of the most honest records I ever made”, there was an air of expectation amongst the early arrivals.
Local rockers The Chainsaw Hookers amped up the smallish gathering by playing a mix of old and new, including latest single ‘Party Man’, ‘Death Proof’, and others from their 2012 self-titled album. The band have been prolific in their local shows recently, having just supported The Misfits and with support slots already lined up for the coming Kylesa and King Parrot tours. With finger-bleeding solos and throaty vocals, this band is one of the tightest live local acts going around at present.
King Of The North were next on stage, featuring drummer Danny Leo and sole guitarist Andrew Higgs. The two-man show, with Leo’s modest drum kit at the front of stage and Higgs off to the left, treated the growing crowd to 45 minutes of pure unadulterated rock. The guitarist provided riffs galore while Leo smashed the skins with animalistic purpose.
How Higgs manipulates his guitar rig to sound like a bass and two guitars is enigmatic. Any thoughts of the two-man show being a gimmick quickly becomes a fallacy after watching the Kings pummel through their work, with a set that included tracks from their 2011 self-titled EP and the recently-released debut album, Sound From Underground.
Monster Magnet took the stage soon afterwards, and whilst the Amplifier Bar had enough room to accommodate latecomers, those in attendance were treated to a set of new and old across the 25-year existence of the New Jersey icons.
Stamping their authority on stage, the Magnet kicked into the 10-minute long ‘Last Patrol’. The title track from last year’s release evolved into a rollicking number that tailed off into a kaleidoscope of trippy guitar wailing and mind-blowing guitar solos.
When Wyndorf turns his back to the audience with guitar in hand, one should prepare themselves for that signature Monster Magnet hallucinogenic sound. No other band does the extended trippy ventures better.
‘Tractor’ had the crowd moving in unison to its anthemic chorus, with the lyrics, “Got a knife in my back, got a hole in my arm, I’m driving the tractor on the drug farm”. The frontman was in the zone, his eyes beaming and darting to individuals in the crowd whilst pointing in appreciation. ‘Dopes To Infinity’ followed, another staple of the Magnet repertoire.
‘Three Kingfishers’, a Donovan cover, escalated the chance to delve into oddity as the band produced another elongated ending before diving into another Magnet classic, ‘Paradise’. Whilst the other band members gently head-banged away, Wyndorf slewed from trippy rage to frontman extraordinaire. This was exemplified by the band combining ‘Spine Of God’ with a maniacal rendition of Don McLean’s, ‘American Pie’, followed by the singer screaming into the microphone, “I love everyone” after the short cover to puzzled looks in the crowd.
Suffice to say, this was a Monster Magnet show, and in this world of stoner rock, weird is never far away. Wyndorf breaking a song mid verse to question Perth’s lack of “greenery” in the crowd typified this notion.
After just eight songs, albeit most of them treated to “12 inch” versions, ‘End Of Time’ signalled the end of the set, the band leaving the stage to raucous applause.
Re-entering for the clichéd encore, the group ripped into ‘Twin Earth’ before a towering version of ‘Powertrip’ from the album of the same name. Wyndorf could have finished his vocal duties for the night while the audience lapped up the chorus, “I’m never gonna work another day in my life, I’m way too busy powertripping”.
Sensing or seizing the moment, the band finished with ‘Space Lord’, the quintessential Magnet song. Screams of “Space Lord, Mother Fucker”, echoed over Perth, leaving the audience to decide whether they’d just witnessed psychedelic rock royalty, or been slightly gypped with just an 11-song set.
With the stellar support crew of Australian talent preceding the rock veterans, likely the latter. All hail the Magnet.
Set List
Last Patrol
Tractor
Dopes To Infinity
Three Kingfishers
Paradise
Look To Your Ord For The Warning
Spine Of God/American Pie
End Of Time
Encore
Twin Earth
Powertrip
Space Lord
