Motorhead

Being loud isn't nearly enough in heavy metal. A bad attitude helps, but for the bands collected under Megadeth's touring mini-festival Gigantour, some distinctive style and vision made all the difference Friday at the Gibson Amphitheatre. Though each of the three top-billed acts — Megadeth, Motorhead and Volbeat — were dependably loud, confrontational and contained elements of classic metal and punk, each delivered something vastly different from the next. While headliner Megadeth stood in front of a big wall of Marshall amplifiers, the real power was less in volume than in the details of the band's dense sound.

Being loud isn't nearly enough in heavy metal. A bad attitude helps, but for the bands collected under Megadeth's touring mini-festival Gigantour, some distinctive style and vision made all the difference Friday at the Gibson Amphitheatre. Though each of the three top-billed acts — Megadeth, Motorhead and Volbeat — were dependably loud, confrontational and contained elements of classic metal and punk, each delivered something vastly different from the next. While headliner Megadeth stood in front of a big wall of Marshall amplifiers, the real power was less in volume than in the details of the band's dense sound.

Where would the world be without Capricorns? Stubborn as goats, but fun, too. Who can forget Mao Tse-tung? Josef Stalin? Nixon? Also, Ben Franklin, Cary Grant, Elvis, Jesus, Rick Nelson were noted Capricorns. One thing is clear, the world would've been a much quieter place without one Capricorn, Ian Kilminster, a.k.a. Lemmy, the brain to blame for Motorhead. This guy is the ultimate rock 'n' roll Party Animal.

Ah, to be a single-name star, those anointed ones for whom no further identification is necessary. There's Elvis, there's Marilyn, there's Kobe — and then there's Lemmy. Motörhead's indefatigable frontman, Lemmy Kilmister, is being honored for his long and illustrious music career on VH1 Classic's "Revolver Magazine's Golden Gods Award," airing this week, where he'll also perform a killer version of "Ace of Spades" with Lemmy fans Slash and Dave Grohl. He's also working on a new album and beginning a world tour.

Lemmy doesn't worry a lot about offending anybody's sensibilities. When a record label head once complained that Motorhead offended too many people, Lemmy's response was: " 'What the [expletive] are they doing that I shouldn't offend them? Tell me that! Why do you keep offending me telling me this [expletive]? I'm on your label.' He should have been sticking up for me, but of course that was too much to hope for. Everybody's so scared of everything, afraid of offending this lobby and that lobby."

"Not bad for someone old enough to be your father," boasted Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister to a full house of tanked-up head bangers at the Santa Monica Civic on Saturday. Now pushing 40, the guiding light of the British heavy-metal quartet has been slogging the concert trail for nearly two decades and still has enough attitude and energy to fuel an army--an extremely belligerent army.

Motorhead lives by the sword, or, more precisely, by the sonic truncheon. Playing at UC Irvine on Wednesday night, the venerable British heavy-metal band, reputed to be the loudest on earth, died by the sword--or, more precisely, by its own faulty electric weaponry. The show in Crawford Hall, a small gym with a stage built into one wall, turned into a loud blur punctuated regularly by screeching feedback from singer Lemmy Kilmister's microphone.

It can't be easy trekking around the country as the tangy mustard in an otherwise bland noise sandwich, which is Motorhead's lot these days. "Operation Rock & Roll," which landed at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Friday night, finds Motorhead stuck in the middle of a heavy-metal bill whose headliners are a dated caricature (Judas Priest) and a rock vaudevillian who remains competent but mired in the same old shtick (Alice Cooper).

Wurzel Burston's road to Motorhead qualifies as one of rock's more implausible success stories. Originally a drummer, Burston switched to guitar at the advanced age of 24, due mainly to the insistence of a friend. "I gave up three times but he got me back into it again," said Burston, whose band appears Saturday at the Santa Monica Civic, Sunday in San Bernardino and next weekend in Long Beach and San Diego.

When Motorhead first revved up its cacophonous engine back in the mid-'70s, many critics chided the group for its exceptionally brutish delivery and sound. Nearly two decades later--now that Motorhead has influenced a plethora of speed and thrash demons, from Overkill to Slayer--it is clear that the heaviest of the British metal bands actually was a pioneering outfit, years ahead of its time.

Lemmy doesn't worry a lot about offending anybody's sensibilities. When a record label head once complained that Motorhead offended too many people, Lemmy's response was: " 'What the [expletive] are they doing that I shouldn't offend them? Tell me that! Why do you keep offending me telling me this [expletive]? I'm on your label.' He should have been sticking up for me, but of course that was too much to hope for. Everybody's so scared of everything, afraid of offending this lobby and that lobby."

"Knowledge is invaluable. There's no replacement for it," claims Lemmy, singer-bassist-grisly-figurehead of Motorhead. But, ye fans of this deathless metal band, don't be too concerned that Lemmy's going professorial on you. He might like to include a bit of social comment and world history in his lyrics, but he also likes to say [expletive] a whole lot.

With a demure curtsy, Motorhead mainstay Lemmy Kilmister accepted the crowd's well wishes from the Whisky stage on Thursday as he celebrated his 50th birthday and the seminal band's 20th anniversary with grace . . . in his own heavy-metal fashion. "It's not my fault," he barked of reaching the landmarks. "I didn't ask for it." He apparently didn't expect to make it this far--a not uncommon opinion regarding the gnarled, notorious fast-liver. But he's not slowing down to mark the occasion.

When Motorhead first revved up its cacophonous engine back in the mid-'70s, many critics chided the group for its exceptionally brutish delivery and sound. Nearly two decades later--now that Motorhead has influenced a plethora of speed and thrash demons, from Overkill to Slayer--it is clear that the heaviest of the British metal bands actually was a pioneering outfit, years ahead of its time.

Motorhead is a band so loud and abrasive that just to warm up for its Coach House show Monday night I went to hear Bob Dornan speak that afternoon. But even Orange County's lone haranguer isn't in the same class as Lemmy, the British group's lead singer and bassist, who doesn't so much sing as seem to be gargling molten lead.

Lemmy, a.k.a. Ian Kilmister, is the man behind Motorhead, the British quartet of whom he once said: "If we moved in next door, your lawn would die." Motorhead--which has just released "March or Die," yet another album of raucous speed metal sure to anger parents the world over--will be in San Juan Capistrano on Monday night to play the Coach House. Because the bad will just be passing through, there's probably no need for horticultural paranoia.

With a demure curtsy, Motorhead mainstay Lemmy Kilmister accepted the crowd's well wishes from the Whisky stage on Thursday as he celebrated his 50th birthday and the seminal band's 20th anniversary with grace . . . in his own heavy-metal fashion. "It's not my fault," he barked of reaching the landmarks. "I didn't ask for it." He apparently didn't expect to make it this far--a not uncommon opinion regarding the gnarled, notorious fast-liver. But he's not slowing down to mark the occasion.

Motorhead lives by the sword, or, more precisely, by the sonic truncheon. Playing at UC Irvine on Wednesday, the venerable British heavy metal band, reputed to be the loudest on earth, died by the sword--or, more precisely, by its own faulty sonic weaponry. The show in Crawford Hall, a small gym with a stage built into one wall, turned into a loud blur punctuated regularly by screeching feedback from singer Lemmy Kilmister's microphone.

Where would the world be without Capricorns? Stubborn as goats, but fun, too. Who can forget Mao Tse-tung? Josef Stalin? Nixon? Also, Ben Franklin, Cary Grant, Elvis, Jesus, Rick Nelson were noted Capricorns. One thing is clear, the world would've been a much quieter place without one Capricorn, Ian Kilminster, a.k.a. Lemmy, the brain to blame for Motorhead. This guy is the ultimate rock 'n' roll Party Animal.