Motörhead
at Lupo’s
by Paul Lee
photo by Dya Khalfa
Play hard, play loud, and live like a motorpsycho gypsy. Yes, this is the lovely life of the never pretty but always ripping Motörhead. As the incomparable Lemmy once said on the live album, No Sleep at All, “Everybody lives for something and everybody died for something. We should’ve died a long fucking time ago but we didn’t…” Thank Hades they haven’t bought the farm! Motörhead is still one of the best heavy metal (not just heavy metal, but their own special mutation) on this earth, and have proven it once again with the aptly titled, Bastards, on XYZ Records. And, of course, live at Lupo’s, in Providence.
With all the bands that keep changing and incorporating new sounds and styles (some great, many not worth a mosquito’s ass), Motörhead are consistent in blasting out music that would melt the cerebrum of conservative, brain-dead music fans. In its various forms, Motörhead has been shaking the earth for nearly 20 years. In the most eloquent language I can conjure up, Bastards rocks the living hell out of my body and kicks the shit out of most rock n’ roll put out today.
To sum it up in a few lines (yeah, right!), Bastards is a grungy, bone-shattering feast from the cartilage-ripping “Burner” to the bluesy, anthemic “Born to Raise Hell.” Lemmy and Co. know how to keep the show interesting by constantly changing pace and style. Only they can pull off a show that has so much raw aggression infused with their unique sense of humor. They roared through “Ace of Spades,” “Dr. Rock,” and “Built for Speed” as well as “I’m so Bad” and “Angel City” off their latest fine slab.
After being an on-and-off fan for ten years, this was my first chance to hang out with them by their tour bus. What hip and wonderfully obnoxious guys they are! (Wurzel gave me a world of shit over the title of the mag, but what else is new?) The main problems I had with the show were; A) it wasn’t in Boston, and B) the turn-out just wasn’t big enough to honor this great band.
If you are, or at any time were, a Motörhead fan, check out Bastards and go see ’em next time around. They’re what true rock n’ roll is all about.
