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Calling all Motorhead and Metallica fans


misterdale

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Motorheadache + Blackened

Friday 9th December

The Lemon Tree

Tickets 9 (6 concessions & Regulars)

Doors Open: 8.30pm | onstage: 9.30pm

Motorheadache is the classic three piece band with lifelong Motorhead fan Rob on Rickenbacker bass and growling vocals. The band's setlist centres on classic songs from the 1978 to 1983 era, but also includes a range of later material plus many of Lemmy's more eclectic - and eccentric - collaborations and covers including AC/DC, Metallica, Rolling Stones, Ozzy, Probot, Twisted Sister, Queen and the Sex Pistols to name a few...

The UK's finest Metallica tribute, Blackened, make it an unmissable night for anyone who likes their rock hard and heavy.

details of gig

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..

The UK's finest Metallica tribute' date=' Blackened, make it an unmissable night for anyone who likes their rock hard and heavy.

[/quote']

Finest...that's a big crock of you know what!

I don't normally lay into bands on boards as I think it can be harsh (and I know what its like to be on the receiving end) but my word! For a start it was £9 for 2 bands! I didn't even stay to see Motorheadache as Blackend gave me a bloody headache! I've never been charged so much for such a poor performance. Its something you would expect from a bunch of 14 year olds playing a school talent show...not a touring tribute band claiming to be the UK's finest...infact one of the bands at this years school show did a rendition of Fuel and Enter Sandman that was far superior <abliet they are all leavers and are 18/19 but still!>

Main gripes and you have to remember these only really annoy me because of the price of the gig and the claims:

The songs were poorly played. Out of time with a lot of incorrect parts. I don't think one solo was nailed even remotely correctly all night. Singer really did sound like a karaoke/comedy attempt at James and spoke in this weird false metal/manly voice all night...that just plain weirded me out "arrrrr are ye all fucking having some fucking fucked up fun...fuck fuck etc etc etc...". Drummer used standard 4/4 beats for most of the songs and rarely touched on anything Lars would do. £1000's of gear on stage. American P-Bass, Hartke Bass Stack, what looked like a very substantial VHT guitar rig and lastly a 7 or 8 piece drum kit...all looked very professional...:down:

You really need to forget the expensive gear and go and learn the songs properly...be able to nail the solos or at least improvise convincingly! Pantellica were MUCH better when they played Lava a few years back...and anyone remember Metal Militia? Perhaps you could get some playing tips from the then 15 year old Gregor. I think you need to remember that when you are a tribute bands you are going attract people who are fans of the band. Even those who don't play instruments would see through this performance.

My 3 metallica-liking friends all feel the same way and the two which weren't really Metallica fans ended up leaving after 2 songs.

I am just so annoyed now that I wasted my night when I could have been doing something more constructive...and still have £9!!! That's almost 2hrs at work for me! GAH!

Apologies if I offended any one but damn!

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I've got to be honest and say I've not seen a bad tribute band, but Blackened weren't that good. I ain't gonna be as harsh as Tav: The singer was ok and he could play guitar, but we couldn't hear the bassist, the drumming was slow and the lead guitarist was total out of time and didn't play half the solos right. Half of the songs were even missed out, Am I Evil for example. Occasionally some good bits shone through, but it was so bad at one point we couldn't stop laughing

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I wish I had missed it...really I do.

I wish you had missed it too! :)

I was actually quite shocked by these comments, as the response and comments we got at the venue were totally far away from these garbled rantings.

Look, you are entitled to your opinion - as is everyone, most of the time - but I don't see why you have such a vendetta against us! I was surprised at the ticket price, and apologies for expectations were raised, but this price is set by the venue, and not by us!

We admit there were hiccups in the set, attributed to problems with onstage monitoring, smoke machine cutting out my guitar, but we went out there to have fun, play some metal, and I believe the bulk of the crowd were happy and showed it! If some people wanna just stand at the back and bitch about the solos not being just quite right, then we can't help that - we can't please everyone!

We came offstage and mingled with the crowd once we played, and there were plenty of people who came up to us, with excellent comments of appreciation.

We also don't claim to be the UK's finest Metallica tribute! This is the opinion of Rob of Motorheadache, who was happy to let us support them. I believe with tribute bands, there is an issue of compromise to a certain extent - we aim to reproduce the stuff as faithfully as we can, but we also want to give a performance, and not just stand there solely concentrating on our instruments without looking out into the crowd.

If all you want to do is nit-pick then be my guest, but you won't really achieve anything with unconstructive criticism. If you're in a band, especially a tribute band, then you know you can't please everyone. With Metallica fans, you get the ones who play guitar who want to debate the ass off a solo, you get the old-school fans who moan if you play Sad But True, you get the younger fans who bitch if we don't play St. Anger material. We just go out there and do what we do, and our impression we got from the Lemon Tree crowd was that the majority of people there were well into it, and with us all the way!!!

If you don't like it, then I don't see what we are supposed to do about it. Anyway, thanks to your comments, I don't think we'll be invited back to the Lemon Tree, which is a shame because we had a great time, only managing to break-even once we took into account the costs of travelling 400 miles and back to play a one-hour set.

In response to specific comments - we only "play bit of songs" - have you ever seen Metallica live, or seen the videos? They experiment, improvise, do medleys off stuff themselves! Also, considering we played for just an hour, give us a fucking break!

Also, about the 4/4 drumming? That is just fucking bollocks! You can't do the instrumental bit of Blackened in 4/4 - open your ears man! We have the drum-tab book - we know!

As I said before, we were well-looking forward to coming back there and doing another show, then you could get a proper impression of what we are about. Unfortunately though, due to your bitching and moaning, this is in doubt. If we did come back, I think it would be best if you saved your hard-earned pennies, and just went and bought the CD.

Goddamnit it just goes to show you can't please everyone!

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We do care what customers think though' date=' and keep tabs on this forum.[/quote']

Exactly - venues will always listen to their customers! But I don't want the opinions to be limited to a couple of people who didn't like us. There were a large number of people there who appreciated both bands, and unfortunately, their opinions are absent from this forum. I don't want a venue's decision to be made on just 2 or 3 opinions, which in my view, is not reflective of the entire crowd.

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i agree with blackened, being in a band should be about having fun, sure you should be able to play the songs but does anyone really care about a couple of screw ups?and especially a tribute band,i mean come on are you expecting them to sound and act exactly the same as the band they are covering?,if this is the case you need to go see the original band,otherwise shut the f**k up!!

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I wish you had missed it too! :)

I don't see why you have such a vendetta against us!

I don't have a vendetta I was just calling it how I saw it. I am sure you are good guys.

If some people wanna just stand at the back and bitch about the solos not being just quite right' date=' then we can't help that - we can't please everyone![/quote']

We were right at the front...at the barrier. Its not that the solos "weren't quite right" it was the fact that they went like this "3 notes....pause...pause...2 notes...ermmm how does it go?.....oh I'll just waggle the whammy bar....phew!"

If all you want to do is nit-pick then be my guest, but you won't really achieve anything with unconstructive criticism.

I am not nit picking...nit picking would be saying you didn't quite manage the 3rd passage in the classical one solo...I was pointing out serious flaws!

Also, about the 4/4 drumming? That is just fucking bollocks! You can't do the instrumental bit of Blackened in 4/4 - open your ears man! We have the drum-tab book - we know!

I was exagerating a point there...a lot of the set appeared to be in standard beats...non of the Lars big back beats...sly chyna hits and general energy...it was there but it wasn't Lars by any stretch of the imagination

What you should do is get a recording of your selves then you can listen back and see what it sounds like...I don't want to continue posting arguments over and over again. I thought you were sub standard as did the 5 other people I was with...only two of which were guitarists.

If the Lemon Tree didn't invite you back I am sure it would have nothing to do with me. They can make up their own minds. If they did ask you back make sure you get a mini disk connected to that sound board...

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What a crock of shite! Since when were you not allowed to post negative opinions about a gig? If Blackened were a local band chucking their toys out of the pram over a mere opinion then all of the usual suspects would be on here giving the old "you shouldn't be up on stage if you can't handle criticism" routine. Sorry but everyone is entitled to give an opinion.

I reckon there are a lot of tribute bands out there who are making a killing out of these kinds of tours (I don't mean Blackened), I know for a fact that when we played with Black McSabbath at Kef they charged the venue an arm and a leg and they were utter bollocks (a complete embarrasment if I'm being honest). If people had heard an honest reveiw beforehand then they may have thought twice before heading down. Don't get me wrong, tribute bands can be ace (and I wasn't at the Blackened show so I can't comment on their performance) Sabbath Bloody Sabbath were fantastic when I saw them and Hi-On Maiden certainly play a good show.

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What a crock of shite! Since when were you not allowed to post negative opinions about a gig? If Blackened were a local band chucking their toys out of the pram over a mere opinion then all of the usual suspects would be on here giving the old "you shouldn't be up on stage if you can't handle criticism" routine. Sorry but everyone is entitled to give an opinion.

Indeed. There was nothing 'unconstructive' in Tav's post that I could see' date=' just offering points that could be improved from the paying punters point of view - always worth taking note of. And the day that we're not allowed to criticise bands on here is the day I hand in my Staff badge and Delete button.

I reckon there are a lot of tribute bands out there who are making a killing out of these kinds of tours

Absolutely. It always pisses me of that tribute bands seem to get huge crowds and a massive response regardless of how shite they really are, from gullible punters who are basically pretending they're watching someone else. I've seen a few who, if they weren't calling themselves 'xxxxx's finest tribute act' would get laughed out of the Malt Mill.

and especially a tribute band' date='i mean come on are you expecting them to sound and act exactly the same as the band they are covering?[/quote']Well... yes. That's the whole point. If you're calling yourself a tribute act then you're pulling a crowd based on the fact that you will be as close as possible to the real thing. If you don't think you have to bother trying that hard, then advertise yourself truthfully as a covers band, then see how full your gigs are.
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First of all - I am not saying people shouldn't post criticism if they didn't like a band! I do believe Tav's reaction to be quite an extreme opposite to the reaction we got from the crowd.

Sure, we have played one or two gigs in the past where we reeked and knew it, and we could tell from the crowd's reaction. But this one we really enjoyed, everyone seemed up for it, and we responded to them by giving them a lot of energy, and i for one would rather fuck stuff up and put on a lively show, than bury my head in the guitar. Sorry for all those who expect everything note-perfect, but hey, even Metallica fuck their parts up!

Another thing that gets my goat up is people commenting who weren't even there; who are basically responding, and in a way, supporting the bad comments. Also, I agree that there is a difference between tributes and cover bands, but what other Metallica tribute bands have you seen?

Okay, maybe Tav offered bits of constructive criticism, but I thought it was very extreme, and basically boils down to him not wanting to pay 9 to see two bands, one of which he missed. Please remember, WE DO NOT SET THIS! I had punters coming up to me afterwards saying they would have paid 9 alone just to see us!!!

I don't want to say that one person's opinion is better than another's, but remember, there were a lot of opinions floating around that gig no doubt. But this thread is dominated by an extremely negative reaction from one or two people, with agreement from others, some who weren't there. This isn't reflective of the crowd reaction as a whole.

Both Motorheadache and ourselves were having problems with the sound all night, ie. monitoring issues, not being able to hear each other, which would obviously have an effect on anyone's performance. I personally was able to hear the drums and my guitar and vocals, and it sounded pretty good to me onstage. However, we did get a minidisc of it, and I have listened to it back, and I must say that the sound you were getting out there was shoddy, and no way near the sound we usually get!!!

I apologise for a shit sound, but it wasn't us behind the mixing desk!! Yet more excuses, I know... :)

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Okay here's another post, but from our drummer, who is taking issue with some of the more unconstructive comments:

I have only just become aware of this forum which is why my response is late; apologies for that. I came away from Aberdeen with a really positive buzz from the crowd; I really enjoyed the gig and felt that the majority of the crowd did too, but maybe I was wrong.

In response to 'Tav's' comments, my first question to you is do you play the drums, or have a decent knowledge of rock/metal drumming or even musical theory? I'm not trying to sound patronizing, I only ask as some of your comments have left me totally confused. You complain that a lot of the set 'appeared' (come on Tav, either it was or it wasn't) to be in standard beats.

Well Tav you may be surprised to find that a lot of rock/metal is in standard 4/4. One of the reasons that I love Metallica is that they also throw in other time signatures to add a layer of complexity to many of the songs, but still the majority is in 4/4. Let's look at some of the songs we played.

For example if you look at Master of Puppets, the vast majority of the song is in 4/4, i.e the whole song is in 4/4 apart from every 4th bar in the verse (5/8 time) and a few other bars in the chorus and interlude which are in 2/4. Off the top of my head, the ENTIRETY of For Whom the Bell Tolls (bar a couple of bars at the very end of the song in 2/4), Enter Sandman, Creeping Death (technically the end of this song is in free time), So What and Whiplash is in 4/4. Conversely, Blackened is largely in 6/4 and 7/4 with the odd 5/8, 5/4, 3/4 and 2/4 bar thrown in. However, the interlude, chorus and guitar solo (to a degree) are in 4/4. I could go on but perhaps you can now see why I am bemused; if the majority of the music is actually in 4/4 and I reproduce this, playing in different time signatures only when Metallica have put them in their songs (sounds like a good idea to me) and not all over the place, it seems unfair to complain about it.

Basically, what I am saying is the question should be did we play (perfectly or not) the same riffs/drums as Metallica do? Yes we did. You can't ask for accurate reproductions and then complain about it. Perhaps what you meant by standard beats was that there weren't enough fills or that the fills were not accurate (though inaccurate and unfair, this would make slightly more sense)? Also, what is a 'sly china hit'? Am I supposed to hit it when no one is looking?

Seriously though, I have tried to reproduce the drum tab from the albums (throwing in a bit of the variations that Lars plays live) as accurately as I can. I bought the drum tab books to this end, and I believe that I do this. I can assure you that I do not play less or even different fills to Lars (for the most part that is; I'm not overly anal on songs such as So What or Last Caress). Some bands do try to cut corners and will play an easier variation of a section of music (shit, even Metallica have done this on occasion when playing live), but I (and Blackened as a whole) have made a concerted effort not to do this where possible. I can assure you that we do not play simplified variations, or that Lars plays anything more technical than I.

Now please don't get me wrong, I am most definitely not claiming to be some great drummer without fault; far, far from it my friend. It's just that the faults you have highlighted seem, to me, to be baseless. I thought to myself is it worth replying to this and I guess I did for three reasons; 1. personal pride 2. simply because it is my opinion that you are wrong in most of your specific complaints against us and 3. confusion.

I do not want Blackened to get a bad reputation on that basis; I do hope that some of the people who did enjoy the show even out the bias (maybe 'trend' is a better word) in this thread a little. To imply that the people who did enjoy the show were either too pissed to notice or not as musically knowledgeable as you (gullible punters Frosty Jacks words) is both slightly arrogant and insulting to the crowd. I'd be the first to admit that I do not have the immense personality of Lars (Im not actually Lars you know), but I do try to play the songs that I love, to the best of my ability. I mess up more often than Id like (that comes with the territory), but I (and we) don't cut corners. As has already been noted, some of the other comments are equally unjust. I'll just touch on a few of these at random in order to save space. For example, the impression given of the solos is, to be kind, a somewhat massively over-exaggerated account of any errors.

Also 'Mouse', to complain that we only played half of Am I Evil is absurd when you take into account that we only had a one hour slot. If we had played the full version then we would have had to cut something else short (probably a song written by Metallica). I'm sure you know that bands have to make decisions like that. If we had a two and a half hour set, as Metallica do (who incidentally do play medleys i.e they cut some songs short), then we could have played more. You couldnt hear the bassist? Well blame the sound engineer then.

Finally, to complain that the singer swore and sounded too macho (have you ever heard James live? He doesn't talk like Hugh Grant! You do know that right?) seems bizarre to me.

You have my sincere apologies that you did not enjoy the gig and feel you wasted your money (possibly not helped by walking out before Motorheadache played), but it seems to me that the criticism was way over the top. I get the impression that you would not have been completely satisfied even if it had been Metallica up on stage. We don't mind criticism (whether we agree with it or not); it's a great way to learn how to improve (and sure, there's plenty of room for improvement), but when we don't agree with the criticism, and it has been made so strongly in a public forum, I'm sure you will appreciate that we have to respond. That is not 'throwing the toys out of the pram'. I really would appreciate a response on this. In what way was our performance of Enter Sandman sub-standard? Which songs did I play too slowly? ETC... If you could be kind enough to take the time (maybe you feel you've wasted enough as it is) to be more specific then we could at least work on improving these "mistakes".

The main point I've learnt so far is that I need to do some crazy jazz-funk drumming or something similar next time (and be out of time with the rest of the band) to please Tav; who cares about sticking to the Metallica score anyway? I'm probably failing in my attempts to mix some humour in, so I'll end by saying thank you for taking the time to read this essay. Look on the bright side; at least reading this didn't cost you a penny!

P.S it's not our fault you had to pay 9; we didn't bloody see much of it and after a round trip of 1200km only just about broke even

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You still KEEP saying things like "Sorry for all those who expect everything note-perfect, but hey, even Metallica fuck their parts up!" I'll say it once more and hopefully you might have the balls to agree...the solos were not missing a few notes they were played badly. They were out of time and missing huge sections when the guitarist didn't know where he was. I am not going to continue and argue the point. I was standing about 4 feet from the guy!

Jeez...just accept that there was some people at your gig who know how to play guitar + have an extensive knowledge of Metallica/music in general and they thought you were a bad act!

Please come back to Aberdeen and I'll bring some more people along and see what they say...

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Also 'Mouse'' date=' to complain that we only played half of Am I Evil is absurd when you take into account that we only had a one hour slot. If we had played the full version then we would have had to cut something else short (probably a song written by Metallica). I'm sure you know that bands have to make decisions like that. If we had a two and a half hour set, as Metallica do (who incidentally do play medleys i.e they cut some songs short), then we could have played more. You couldnt hear the bassist? Well blame the sound engineer then.

[/quote']

It just seemed odd you cut it just before it got into the best bit. Fair enough if you had limited time, but then the remaining part of the song was only another 3 more minutes if I'm correct. Also a lot of Metallica's best songs are quite long. Playing a medley like the one on Cunning Stunts would of been a better idea than doing half a song and missing out the best bit.

That's unusual about the sound because the Lemon Tree is one of the best sounding venues in Aberdeen imo. And don't worry I ain't saying your bassist was crap, from what I could hear his playing was fine. You guys just need to practise more it seems. As I said before, some of the songs were played pretty slow, the timing wasn't too great in places, especially when it came to the solos.

Metallica aren't the easiest band to cover, and personally I'd admire the band's guts to take on such a task. Yes we all make mistakes, but then I've seen many tribute bands and at least half I can safely say were flawless. It isn't that hard with the practise. If you guys came up again and could prove me wrong, that would be great.

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