Stoner metal gods Monster Magnet took over Brooklyn on Friday night, packing the Music Hall of Williamsburg with fans and delivering a riveting performance of the entire Dopes To Infinity album for the die-hard audience.
Frigid temperatures and a downed billboard blocking 2 lanes of the southbound BQE conspired to make Friday night a poor option for going out in Brooklyn, but long-time Monster Magnet fans weren’t deterred for a second. The band rarely tours in the US (read my review of their last local performance at Starland Ballroom here), and in fact Friday night’s show, followed by just one more Dopes date in New Jersey, made up the entirety of this ‘mini-tour.’
Even with a late, 11pm start, hundreds of fans packed into the tri-level Music Hall, one of the more unique NYC venues with an underground bar and raised platforms on the main floor allowing those who wish to stay out of the fray to still enjoy a quality view of the show.
And what a fray there was! Frontman and heart and soul of the band Dave Wyndorf chose to present the Dopes album, one of his finest and a fan favorite, out of order from the track listing, but the night’s third song, Look To Your Orb For The Warning, stirred up mosh pit insanity with its hypnotic riff and spacey bellowing. A dozen or so fans in the center of the floor started a small but intense pit as they slammed around to the crushing song, and the violent action kept up as Wyndorf and his band ripped through each track with a passionate zeal for the effects-drenched metal.
Ego, The Living Planet proved to be another high point of the night, as Wyndorf proved that he can still roar and bellow with an unearthly ferocity. Over the dominating guitar riffs, he screamed “I talk to planets baby!” as the crowd howled right back at him. The singer played with a glassy look in his eyes and a wavering step which one might mistake for being under the influence, but in fact, can likely be attributed to the fact that Mr. Wyndorf might just be certifiably insane. (Read my 2010 interview with him by clicking here.)
With the space metal fury of the Dopes album as a soundtrack, fans in the center of the floor soon grew tired of moshing and switched to crowdsurfing, a difficult prospect given the less-than-dense nature of the crowd up front and center. But every few minutes a screaming, fist-pumping attendee would tumble over the crowd and right onto the stage, even making Dave step out of the way at one point in sheer rock n’ roll anarchy that perfectly suited the nature of the night’s music.
The Dopes record is an intense one, equal parts balls-out rocking and psychedelic deviancy, and the music got progressively darker, especially on Third Alternative as fans sang along to Dave’s twisted lyrics. Further back in the venue, fans stood in much tamer bunches, but mouthing the words to every song. Occasional puffs of skunky smoke rose from the dark corners as the music, amplified to ear-splitting volume, churned and roared and fully enveloped the collective heads of everyone in attendance.
With their late start, the band didn’t finish the album’s final track until well after midnight, but even that wasn’t the end of the night. Dave & friends encored with just one new track, Hallucination Bomb, before finishing the show with fan favorites Powertrip and Space Lord, each of which saw the crowd explode in a fresh bout of all-out metal madness. Even the quieter fans in the back joined the drunker and rowdier audience up front in singing along to Powertrip’s boastful, self-empowering chorus, and Space Lord, arguably Monster Magnet’s best known single, was everything a climactic encore should be, with fans jumping around as they screamed out the uncensored version of the famous “Mother, mother” lyric. Watch my mosh pit video of Space Lord on the upper left sidebar, shaky pit hits and all.
There aren’t many bands left over from the heydays of ‘90s alternative metal that still command the kind of loyalty on display at Friday night’s show. While their commercial peak may have been the Powertrip album, Monster Magnet has put out a pair of albums in the last 5 years that are easily on par with the rest of their discography, and clearly records like Dopes To Infinity are still treasured by fans. While it would be nice if Wyndorf played the New York region more often, it’s hard to complain with a total of 5 NY/NJ shows in the past three years, and with the raging success of the Dopes To Infinity performance in Brooklyn, one can only hope that a full show for Powertrip isn’t too far off in the (silver) future either.
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