Jay Mazeffect's Review of Motorhead @ Starland Ballroom 3/3/11 Motorhead and The Fountain Of Youth- Starland Ballroom 3-3-11. Motorhead are proof positive that rock and roll is what Ponce De Leon was looking for. They don't subscribe to the theory that if it's too loud you're too old. More like if it's too loud you're not deaf enough. They are also quite happy to cure you of that problem. I know this as a solemn truth, due to the fact that while walking to my car across the street from Starland Ballroom during this past week's gig, I could still hear Lemmy, Phil, and Mikkey Dee, as if I were listening to my ipod with my earplugs lodged deep into my skull. I don't normally leave a gig before the house lights come up, but considering how Starland was packed to the point of instantaneous death if the place were to go up, as well as knowing full well the clusterfuck that the parking lot would be once Motorhead finish up "Overkill", I decided to err on the side of sanity. Touring in support of "The World Is Yours", Motorhead do exactly what they say they do at the start of every gig: "We play rock and roll". It's true. Boil their songs down to their essence and it's just basic rock and roll songs, just a lot louder and faster. hence why they are still a band everyone can agree on. It's not metal. it's not punk. it's ROCK AND ROLL. straight up, with the only chaser being a loss of hearing. These elder gents played a set of comprised of more of their mid tempo numbers (which is still fast by most band's standards). I love this very thing about Motorhead. I've seen them many times now, and every set is different. Sometimes it's been one blazing blitzkrieg of a song after another, sometimes it's a methodical hammer to the head, and other times it's a head-spinning jump back and forth between the two extremes. Hell, I've even seen them acoustic. All of that, as well as a set list that is an ever-changing, evolving, living organism, keeps this band from resting on it's rather large laurels and becoming (much like the current formation of The Misfits) a nostalgia act. This juggernaut is a still a viable musical entity. No amount of volume can obscure that fact. They aren't going through the motions. They are the motion. I've never left a Motorhead gig unsatisfied. This most recent one was no exception. The same can't be said for openers, Clutch. They just sounded like they were trying to be riff-eriffic like Black Sabbath, but without the hooks that they had (and oh yes, they had them. Paranoid? Hook. Supernaut? Hook. The Mob Rules? Hook.). The songs just sort've left me flat, and didn't really engage me in any way. The crowd ate it up, so it's not that they sucked in any real way, they just didn't speak to my tastes, I would venture to guess. I had arrived to venue to late to catch Valient Thorr, which disappointed me. I had seen them once before, and thought they were excellent, channeling an MC5 kinda vibe at The Warped Tour a number of years back. I hope to catch them again some time. All in all, a great night for reminding people that rock and roll is alive and well, and still obnoxious to your parents, even if the band in question is older than your parents. Fountain of youth, indeed. -Jay Mazeffect PS I would've included pictures, but I was pressed against the back corner of the place, and had no possible way of taking any meaningful pics. The sweat and smell were something to behold. www.imotorhead.com www.valientthorr.com www.pro-rock.com (Clutch)