invisible
Member
- Joined
- May 6, 2008
- Messages
- 2,790
Oh, man. You missed out on one of the greatest live acts on the planet. I've seen them something like a dozen times over a 30 year period. My 2 oldest shirts from the concerts have long ago been "retired", and my shirts from the 2000 and 2005 tours are starting to show their wear. Ugh.
So here's a few good Motorhead stories:
I first got turned onto the band in the early 1980's. I was at some local punk show, and heard about an after-hours party. I found the party, it was in some basement apartment. Walked down the steps and entered a room full of people with a large table in the center. I didn't know anyone there at all. On the table was a HUGE pile of pot, perhaps 3 feet diameter and a foot high. Seated around the table was a group of people who were de-seeding it (remember, this was the early 1980's) as quickly as they could. Around the perimeter of the room was a line of people, waiting to hit a huge bong that had been built along one wall. That sucker must have been 10 feet long, 6 inches diameter, with a big funnel for a bowl. One person crouched at the base, lighting it for others who would stand on a stepstool at the other end to hit it. It was a very odd and surreal scene, I had never seen anything like it. As Paranoid cranked on the stereo, I grabbed a beer and took my place at the end of the line. After taking my turn, my ass was kicked, and so I stepped around the corner into a bedroom with the stereo, and flopped on the bed. Paranoid finished playing, and someone came in to change the album. Whatever it was, the next record hit me like a brick (just like a hit off that huge bong did). It was relentlessly driving, nonstop energy. Lots of great punk energy and attitude with a completely aggressive approach, but it was more of a metal album than a punk album. When someone came in to flip the record over, I asked them what it was. "Motorhead, Ace Of Spades" was the reply. I've been a huge fan ever since. I really don't remember much else about the remainder of the evening, but I sure remember walking into that place, and hearing Motorhead for the first time!
The first chance that I got to see the band was a few years later. Someone had thrown a cinder block through the rear window of my car a few weeks before, on halloween. I hadn't fixed it yet, so the rear window was covered with taped up plastic. My other friends who went with me didn't have a car, and the show was about 4 1/2 hours away. Halfway there, the plastic started to come off. We were out in the middle of nowhere, with no possible place to stop and buy tape. One of my friends had to sit turned around, holding down the edge of the plastic. We didn't reach a town until an hour later. We got more tape, but it didn't stick very well in the colder temperatures. He pretty much had to hold that plastic down for the rest of the trip, both there and back. Luckily someone had a pair of gloves. It was a hassle getting there, but of course getting the chance to actually see Motorhead made it all worthwhile.
Years later, I had moved halfway across the country. At another Motorhead show, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around, and discovered an old roommate from about 12 years and 1200 miles ago standing there. "What the hell are you doing here?", I asked. He said "remember that time (late 1980's) when we went to go see the Grateful Dead? You brought a Motorhead tape with you for the ride. When someone put it in, I was thinking WTF is this shit, but the song Metropolis got stuck in my head. I realized after the fact that it was really good stuff after all, and I've really liked these guys ever since. I moved out here a couple years ago. I knew you were living out here someplace, and if I was going to ever run into you anywhere, it would be at a Motorhead show. Sure enough, here you are!"
Fun times. RIP. Now that makes two of my major influences dead (Chris Squire was the other one) this year, both Rickenbacher players. Damn, who's next, Geddy Lee?
