MOTORHEAD Tour Comes To Fantastic End In Los Angeles

By Aniruddh "Andrew" Bansal

My rating:

March 11th 2011, Club Nokia, Los Angeles CA: After already having witnessed this tour twice, I went back to see it one more time as the troupe of Motorhead, Clutch and Valient Thorr graced Club Nokia for the final show of "The World Is Yours" North American tour. The excitement for the show was gradually building throughout the day, and adoring young fans lined up outside the venue starting as early as 9 in the morning. After my interview with Clutch drummer Jean-Paul Gaster, an interview I quite enjoyed doing, I joined the line myself at around 3.30 in the afternoon.

For LA shows, this kind of fanfare with people lining up hours before the doors opened is seldom seen, but today was obviously different for one simple reason, Motorhead. That's what the band does to you as a fan. But other than Motorhead fans, there was also the one Valient Thorr fan, a guy wearing a vest that read, "Thorrior So Cal". He went absolutely ballistic when Valient Thorr frontman Valient Himself walked by him, and a mere handshake with his favorite musician was seemingly enough for him as his joy knew no bounds.

The doors were supposed to be opened at 8 o' clock, but strangely enough, they opened the doors at 7, only to those who were over 21 years of age. I found this unannounced change in policy to be quite ridiculous, and completely unfair to the kids that waited all day long just to get first access to the general admission pit, which was limited to around 300 people and was first come first served, supposedly anyway. I do understand that Club Nokia, like every other venue, wanted the 21 plus folks to pour their money on alcohol, but that shouldn't mean a total disregard for those under 21. The sensible thing would have been to open the doors early for everyone. As it turned out, quite a few of those kids that got stuck in the back jumped the barricade between the GA floor and the GA pit when Motorhead went on, something which the venue definitely deserved.

Right, on to the show then. Valient Thorr impressed me as they always do. Valient Himself looked like he was really enjoying the extra room to run around and dance all over that huge stage, a stage that must have been bigger than most other places they played on this tour. Crowds at such shows are usually completely indifferent about the opening band, but the crowd here tonight was surprisingly receptive to them, and the band got a much better response than I expected them to get. "Heatseeker" was again an amazing live song, although this crowd didn't quite understand what Valient Himself was trying to do as he jumped into them, sat them down and started rowing the boats. It turned out to be pretty hilarious as kids started crowd surfing on to him, due to which he quickly got up and got back on stage. They ended the set with the customary "Sleeper Awakes", thanked the crowd and said goodbye. I hope they return on tour again soon, as Valient Thorr's blend of excellent music and great showmanship not only infects cheerful energy among its audience, but is also quite unique and rarely found elsewhere.

Clutch were up next. They always change up their set lists, not only in terms of the songs played but also the order in which they are played. So you can never be quite sure of what you're going to hear from Clutch, which is a great thing. What you can be sure of, is a rollicking performance from them every time, led by frontman Neil Fallon. Some of the highlights of their set were most definitely "Struck Down", "50000 Unstoppable Watts", and the Cream cover of "Politician" with Motorhead's Phil Campbell jamming with them as well. The whole set was enjoyable, but these are tunes I would recommend for first time listeners to start out with. In terms of the crowd response, I felt they got a much better response on this tour than the previous tour they did, opening for Black Label Society. Compared to the other time I saw Clutch on this tour, the crowd here was more energetic during their set with plenty of mosh pits going on, although the San Diego crowd had more of their own fans singing along with the lyrics. Clutch bring a refreshingly pleasant musical style with them, a style that's largely based on old school blues rock 'n roll, and I would like to thank Motorhead for giving us a chance to see Clutch as the support band on this tour. I would go on to say that Clutch are way better than all of the bands that got huge in the 90s, put together, and it's unfathomable to me as to why they aren't more popular. With that said, I look forward to a headlining tour by the ever-amazing Clutch.

After all that was said and done, the stage was ready for Motorhead. As always, Lemmy, Campbell and Mikkey Dee quietly took their positions on stage, and after a simple welcome message from Lemmy, they began their set with "We Are Motorhead". Chaos broke out in the pit and due to the slippery nature of the floor, the scene was quite hilarious as kids kept rolling on the floor moshing, literally. I was very glad to see this crowd displaying the kind of energy a Motorhead show deserves, and there weren't many people in that pit that weren't moving in some way or another. This energy remained constant throughout the set, even though it was expectedly greater for songs like "Rock Out", "Ace Of Spades" and Overkill". Ex-Runaways singer Cherie Curie's appearance as guest vocalist on "Killed By Death" along with Lemmy's son Paul Inder on guitar was a very nice bonus. If you haven't been to a Motorhead show, let me give you an idea of how loud it really is. I happened to find myself standing directly facing one of the main speakers on stage right, and I felt like I was literally being blown away, so much so that I had to move back a few rows. The great thing about this show and about the Motorhead shows on this tour in general was that the stage show wasn't only about Lemmy. Phil stepped in to address the crowd plenty of times during the set, in fact much more than Lemmy himself, and of course Mikkey Dee entertained the crowd greatly with his drum solo during "In The Name Of Tragedy" and his command over the crowd on the intro for "Just 'Cos You Got The Power" was amazing. As he rightly said in one of the interviews featured in the recently released Lemmy movie, Motorhead is made up of not one but three frontmen.

After writing a note to myself to never forget my earplugs for a Motorhead show, I would end this by saying that through this tour Motorhead have proven themselves as the most prolific and consistent live band going around at present. Bands often have off-nights, but those bands are only human, unlike Motorhead. No one ever leaves a Motorhead show disappointed with what he or she got to see. I am convinced that the power of a live Motorhead experience will never diminish, and after all other veteran rockers retire, Motorhead will be the only band on the planet still standing as strong as ever.

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