Motorhead 2008 - Review of September 13, 2008 concert at The Orbit Room in Grand Rapids, Michigan
It's been almost 15 years since I last saw Motorhead in concert, and this was my wife's first time.
I have to first off start with a few comments about The Orbit Room. This venue has the potential of being a very cool club type concert hall, but has not been well maintained. What was once a very trendy looking place has now become a little bit better than your typical bar. On many recent occasions, they were not allowing access to the upper balcony, which further frustrates old people like me. For this show, we were able to get upstairs, however the track up via the first staircase proved adventurous, due to hardly any lighting. Once up at the balcony, getting around was also tricky, due to very limited stair lighting (I tripped more than once). The Orbit room used to have waitresses wandering around taking drink orders, but that has been discontinued (unfortunate). Overall, it wasn't our worst experience at The Orbit Room, but they could do much to improve things.
We arrived shortly after the second band had started. They were called "Year Long Disaster". They seemed to be more of a rootsy hard rock, akin to maybe Aerosmith or Led Zeppelin. Sort of a dirty bluesy rock, from this three-piece. Not bad, but I'm not buying yet. Next up with a group known as "Valient Thorr". These guys are full of energy, and appear to be bent on winning the audience over. With music that sounded like AC/DC on speed, this group was non-stop hard rock at 150bpm. Add to this the overall abundance of band facial hair, and you've got an odd visual. The lead singer "Valient himself" was constantly moving, jumping, climbing on speakers, dancing around, and attempting to engage the audience. Overall, the style isn't my cup of tea, but I'll give them a "A" for effort. They are apparently building a name for themselves by getting songs onto video game soundtracks.
Finally we get the headliner - the mighty Motorhead. After over 30 years of making music, Lemmy Kilmister and company still manage to maintain a trademark sound that doesn't much change. For the fans, this is a good thing. Basic high speed rock-n-roll with vocals that sound like they came from an 80yr old smoker (Lemmy is around 60 now, isn't he?). By introducing themselves as "we are Motorhead, and we play rock and roll", the band kicked into over 90 minutes of tunes from across their entire career. New material sounded like it came from the original 1980 "Ace of Spades" era, while cover tunes like Thin Lizzy's "Rosalie" still had that Motorhead stamp on them. The only "odd" moment was their first encore of an acoustic guitar blues tune, with Lemmy just handling vocals. Other than that, I'd say the night was loud, fast, and exactly what everyone wanted. After pummeling the audience with their sonic onslaught, they left us with ears rining, and some bass guitar feedback that only Lemmy provides. You gotta love a band that hasn't given up their style or compromised their image (warts and all).
The previous time I had seen Motorhead (again, 15 yrs ago), they were opening for Black Sabbath. Motorhead got about 45 minutes, and they wasted no time with their attack. I was surprised at how the band has very little stage "antics", and that hasn't changed over the years. Motorhead has no special gimic or show, but simply comes out loud and fast.
I don't know how much longer Motorhead will be around, but I'm betting Lemmy has at least another 10 years worth of damage to cause. See you next time around.
