What, another Motorhead ‘live’ album? Well, yeah, why not? You’re never going to see the real thing on stage again so ‘live’ albums help to fill the void. And if they’re all as good as this one, then they justify their being released.
Motorhead became a fearsome ‘live’ act through years of relentless touring and punishing roadwork – you don’t become this tight onstage just playing your local pub – which helped turn the band into a tight cohesive unit and, when they hit their peak, few could live up to them onstage. This hard gigging was essential because, as the great man himself said, “you can’t listen to an album to find out what we’re about. You have to see us live.” This was certainly a fearsome gig, with Motorhead being caught on a night when they were on fire. Their set featured many tried and trusted Motorhead classics, and included songs off of albums from right the way throughout their long career, from Overkill 1979 right up to 2006’s Kiss Of Death.
This previously unreleased gig was captured on their 2007 ‘Kiss Of Death’ tour and was recorded in Montreux at the auditorium Stravinski. Montreux wasn’t just for jazzers, the bill also occasionally included others who were felt to be adventurous in their musical genre, with bands like Purple and ZZ Top also having appeared.
Right at the outset, Lemmy intones “So this is the Montreux jazz festival? Well, we’re Motorhead and we play rock ‘n roll”, after which they go straight in their three-song opening salvo, beginning with ‘Snaggletooth’, immediately followed by ‘Stay Clean’ and ‘Be My Baby’ (no, not the Ronettes 60’s classic!!) which sees Lemmy growling more than singing. They follow these with several more classic Motorhead stage favourites, including ‘Killers’ .. “Well, that was pretty jazzy, wasn’t it?” .. ‘Over The Top’, ‘I Got Mine’, ‘In The Name Of Tragedy’ and ‘Sacrifice’ .. with Lemmy telling the crowd “this is a very fast number, you dance to this and you’ll never have any children” .. which includes a four minute drum solo. They go slightly off track and include a rarely performed version of Bob Seger’s ‘Rosalie’, which Thin Lizzy made famous in 1976, with Lemmy making clear his admiration for Phil Lynott.. and sad to note both men are no longer with us.
The set finishes with powerful versions of ‘Killed By Death’ and ‘Iron Fist’, and for a first encore we get ‘Whorehouse Blues’, with Phil Campbell on acoustic and Lemmy playing a mean bluesy harp, before the inevitable conclusion of ‘Ace Of Spades’ and ‘Overkill’, which ends with two minutes of feedback and guitar burbling sounds reminiscent of Hawkwind.
For all that was written about Motorhead and their ‘everything up to 11’ approach, there’s little doubt all three of them .. Lemmy, Mikkey Dee and Phil Campbell could play and rock up a storm onstage, and while Lemmy’s vocals will never win any awards, he was one of rock’s great frontmen and his delivery was ideal for what Motorhead played.. rock ‘n roll!
