Motorhead – Anvil – At Club Nokia – Los Angeles, CA

Everyone loves in your face rock n’ roll music, so it only makes sense that we’d spend our Tuesday evening in downtown LA at the Motorhead show at Club Nokia. Motorhead are known in the music world as the loudest band on the planet and have always been one of the best bands to see live over the years. Not ones to pass up on a rad show we decided that catching Motorhead was a must, especially since it was the only known show in the area planned for the year.

We got to the venue just in time to catch the main support band Anvil, they’re the infamous Canadian metal band who made a splash (well kind of ) in the eighties and then had a documentary focused on their career that was a hit in film circles around 2008. Seeing as how many who attend Motorhead shows aren’t exactly youngsters (even though they attract fans of all ages), Anvil’s brand of metal on metal went over really well with the hell raising - beer drinking crowd and were not at all booed like the band who had played right before them. Anvil are a bit cheesy but totally funny and way entertaining to say the very least as their vocalist/guitarist uses non conventional stage props like a dildo to enhance his guitarist shredding technique.

If not opening for Motorhead you’d kind of expect to see them at a county fair or some other Spinal Tap friendly venue. They know how to work a crowd regardless if they’re the main attraction or main support of the evening, and that’s exactly what they did throughout their semi lengthy set as it featured both a guitar and drum solo, not something commonly seen during opening slots. They closed out their set with their wondrous “Metal on Metal” single, a song that’ll surely live on forever in the hearts of Hessians all over Canada and abroad.

During the changeover the venue experienced an increase in attendance which is so common with LA shows as people just love to make fashionably late entrances. Some of the well known faces we saw that night were Dave Grohl, Rikki Rachtman, Slash, and Greg Hetson.

Thankfully by the time Lemmy and co. took the stage their wasn’t an empty seat in the house as the club was now set to go off like a nuclear bomb. It wouldn’t be a proper Motorhead show without Lemmy’s familiar intro ala “We are Motorhead and we play rock n’ roll!!” to which the crowd always responds with the ultimate roar of metal approval!

Because Motorhead’s back catalog of tracks is so massive they can pull from more albums than most bands can dream of, though instead of needing to rely on a classic to get the show started they are just as confident in opening with “I Know How To Die”, a track dating only back to 2010. Much like what we witnessed at the Suicidal Tendencies show the other night, security were pretty much helpless against the black leather clad crowd who rushed their way down into the pit during Motorhead’s opening riffs.

Their performance was flawless as they seemed to breeze through the first few songs and get themselves warmed up for the harder and faster selections that were to come later in their set. Guitarist extraordinaire Phil Campbell had a guitar solo only after a few songs into the set that was quite enjoyable as it served as a nice moment for the ears to alleviate as the heavy bass and skull pounding drums were silenced. Campbell’s guitar fret board had bright green lights that were totally not very aggressive looking but nonetheless quite the spectacle. Compared to Mikkey Dee’s drum solo it seemed very tame.

Mikkey is one of the raddest drummers in the Metal genre who can play with flash but more importantly play with the testicular fortitude whether he is delivering a lengthy solo that blows minds or whether he is deep in the pocket with Lemmy’s bass playing as they are without a doubt one of the gnarliest rhythm sections ever. It was quite the moment when Lemmy’s son joined in on 2nd guitar for the fan favorite “Killed By Death”.

Even though Lemmy’s son is probably in his late 30’s or early 40’s it is still way cool to see father and son decimate a crowd together like it’s nobodies business. It was of course the swan song “Ace Of Spades” that drove the crowd absolutely fucking insane and called for the nights biggest sing a long, and with a chorus like Ace of Spades how could you expect otherwise?

The band would leave the stage shortly after but return soon for one of the biggest treats of the night. Lemmy, Phil and Mikkey paid tribute to Thin Lizzy by covering “Are You Ready” simply for the fact that they can, and as a matter of fact do it very well. Like with many Motorhead shows they chose to close with “Overkill”, one of their best known classics that features more double bass pounding beats than the body can handle without causing severe brain damage. The audience loved it and circle pitted at full speed as they all knew it was to be the last song of the evening.

Motorhead closed out the night in top form and reminded Los Angeles that they are still the raddest and loudest band on the fucking planet. With a new album due out soon we can only hope that they are back on stage in our neighborhood come late summer or fall, perhaps as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival? I think it’s fair to say that Lemmy deserves his day of recognition on The Sunset Strip..

We can only wait and see and hope that we are once again watching Lemmy and co. destroy a stage more sooner than later.

Till next fucking time, all hail Motorhead

             More photos of the show can be seen HERE

-Louie Bones-
Big Wheel Staff Reporter

 

 

 

 

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