Time to celebrate 35 years of psychedelic stoner rock: a very special anniversary for MONSTER MAGNET. 

Before the heavyweight, historic combo takes the stage, DAILY THOMPSON kicks off the musical proceedings on the boards of the LKA Longhorn in Stuttgart. The Dortmund trio, which released their 7th album in 2024, is a fitting ensemble. Guitar-heavy rock with elements of Noise-, Psychedelic-, and Stoner-Rock is the perfect introduction. The usual ballad insert in their set wasn’t necessary because the trio otherwise pushes forward powerfully. You can especially see the joy on bassist Mercedes Lalakakis’ face during their live performance. The first signs of movement spread through the well-filled venue.

Then Dave Wyndorf and his men take the stage. Unfortunately, the years of rock ‘n’ roll with drug (ab)use and a severe motorcycle accident have taken a physical toll on the band leader’s body: Dave, now 67 years old, performs sitting in the middle on a barstool, or rather, throning with his presence. This doesn’t detract from the experience at all – it becomes a great gig. What can’t be done with stage action is more than compensated by the light show. All the musicians harmonize incredibly together.  Sound was awesome, too. The set-list is short, but the songs are arranged in longer, extensive versions and are presented in a way that really makes the live performance unique. You’d wish such a design for many other bands, whose idea of a rock concert consists of mechanically reproducing the album tracks as faithfully as possible. Happily, one can say that neither drug use (almost to the point of death) nor other issues have done much damage to the leader’s voice. Even though Dave himself mentioned that his voice was slightly affected, you couldn’t tell. And no one in the audience would have regretted catching this gig.