Back in the late 90ies, Monster Magnet released the album Powertrip and I was in love. It didn’t take long to also pick up the 1995 album Dopes To Infinity and the trippy journey continued!
Without any real reason, I never delved deeper into their discography, but those two albums have seen several spins in to old music machine. Neither have I ever seen them live, but the will has always been there, and I therefore clapped my little hands to Copenhell for giving me the opportunity!

“Brothers and sisters, boys and girls, motherfuckers everywhere, we hope you enjoy the performance!”
- David ‘Dave’ Wyndorf (vocals/guitar)

My mood was still soaring after a great Týr gig, and the weather was getting better by the minute – things were looking good! Still, I couldn’t help but feel a bit confused and apprehensive when the band took the stage. They started out with an oldie, Superjudge, but I couldn’t quite concentrate as I was for one thing wondering why a band like Monster Magnet would need three guitar players (Wyndorf, Phil Caivano and Garrett Sweeny) and for another where on God’s green Earth Wyndorf’s shape had gone? Would he be able to pull it off? Judging from the dragging beginning of the show, it didn’t look like it. It didn’t exactly make it easier to take this seriously when Wyndorf broke the D-string of his guitar already in the first song, and absolutely no one cared enough to do anything about it for the remainder of the show...
On top of all this, the band was pretty damn anonymous in their almost non-existent performance as well, and not surprisingly the audience didn’t get into the mood but simply stood there for the most part – things weren’t looking quite as good anymore...

Then something happened. The third song, Look To Your Orb For The Warning, was apparently not just better known by me, but the rest of the crowd began to loosen up a bit as well.
By this time the band had managed to shake some rust of, and while most of them continued to just stand around looking at their toes and/or instruments, at least Wyndorf and Caivano began to truly rock.
Now things were escalating quickly, and there was only one thing to do – join the ride!
During their much too short 7 track set, the title track of Dopes To Infinity was the next stop, and after that it was all glory to Powertrip! Tractor got people in the right gear after which we all burst out in joyous sing-along action during the title-track of that album. Space Lord came last and blew our minds straight back to our childhood rooms of the past where we headbanged and air guitar played the living daylights out of the album with friends.

As you can imagine, Monster Magnet was quite a roller-coaster trip – going in with high expectations only to have them crushed by a lazy start, and then have the rubble built back up stronger and more amazing than anything the original expectations would have dreamed possible.
It was a surprising set as well, but you won’t hear me complaining – Monster Magnet obviously know where their classics lay, and they’re not ashamed to take full advantage of it!
Monster Magnet went straight into a top 4 position, and the only thing that could have made it better would have been a longer setlist with more monstrous goodness.

Setlist:

Superjudge
Medicine
Look To Your Orb For The Warning
Dopes To Infinity
Tractor
Powertrip
Space Lord