For most of the near capacity crowd this was a fun show but I’ll have to admit it was not my type of MP set. In fact this might have been my least favourite show by our Norwegian heroes by a mile.
I feel almost bad and guilty saying this considering how well played this concert was: The sound was powerful, they were tight, Bent just about managed to avoid the most cringy vocal missteps, an honest devotion to the material was on display and the setlist mostly worked well. Olaf is competent and tight enough to hold it together but he is not a magician of fills, runs and dynamics the way Tomas and Kenneth were. Also, I simply cannot warm to his drum sound which sounds like a tin can, with the hi hats all washing together, a hissy mess to my ears. The first part of “Pacific Sonata” (Bent: “This is a song about a palace which broke down.”) was about the only moment when Olaf’s deep rumbling kick drums really added to the sound and touched me.
My biggest problem is the material they choose to play. I don’t think much of their material of the last 10 years is particularly strong and original within their own body of work. I’ll have to go back eight years to “The Tower” to single out the last truly significant studio album. A friend nailed it when he texted me his immideate reaction after a show of this tour: “Too many similiar songs played similarly.” Indeed, at this show in Berlin, there were no jams, they did not venture into uncharted territory for one single moment! The closest we came to stepping through the portal was during “Neotzar”, one of my highlights of this gig along with “3FM”, “Captain”, “Lady May” and “Balthazaar”.
This was mostly a Rock ‘n’ Pop show, i.e. almost zero psychedelic, which is just one side of MP. Me, myself, I feel a bit removed from the youthful energy of the 1990s and maybe I am revealing more about myself here when I can’t help to think that they are not playing tho their strengths when they are devoting entire concerts to the type of energy on display on “Stanley”, “CMC” and “The Nerve Tattoo” et al. That said, the crowd loved it and the last third of the main set after “Spreesonate” went through the roof, raising the energy level song by song until the entire room erupted in blissful applause for the encore break.
I am curious how this tour will develop, though I get the feeling they will mostly stick to this material. I hope to hear “Patterns” and “Sentinels” in Hamburg tonight and will be eager to learn what type of band I will see for the tour closer in Bremen.
See you out there!
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