### Motörhead: 2011-03-10

#### 03/06/11 || sly

A few months ago, I found myself in wild Arizona: the land of luscious Lynda Carter and libidinous Phoenix Marie. Incidentally, it is also my native territory. What can I say? Arizona’s production of hot babes is a well-kept secret.

A couple of good friends and I were about to set out on a road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway. We planned to stop in Big Sur, San Francisco, the Redwood Forest, Portland, Astoria (where “The Goonies” was filmed), Seattle, and many more such places.

But first stop: Tempe, Arizona for the Motörhead gig. We Arizonans like to start things with a bang (a philosophy off of which our lovely Phoenix Marie based an entire career).

The selected venue was great for a show like this. Capacity is approximately 1000 standing room, making it fairly easy to get right up to the front.

Valient Thorr opened the show. I’d never seen them before and I was pleasantly surprised. The Thorr boys rocked their asses off whilst Valient Himself ricocheted all over the stage like a manatee on crack. He may have more sweaty beer gut than head hair, but he performs with the energy of a ten-year-old kid… on crack.

Clutch was next. It made for a slightly awkward momentum, but they delivered a damn good set. “50,000 unstoppable watts” and “Immortal” made it onto the setlist, as well as a cover of Cream’s “Politician”, the latter for which Motörhead’s own guitarist Phil Campbell came out and joined them on the stage.

The opening bands had done their job well; Arizona was fueled and ready for Lemmy. The zeptosecond their eyeballs caught a glimpse of hot, curvaceous mole the audience ruptured in synchronous climax, spewing venomous scorpion semen into the air. Phoenix Marie stood in the center, chin up and mouth open, and effortlessly swallowed it all down in one formidable gulp.

Unimpressed, Lemmy ignored it and said, “We are Motörhead. We play rock and roll.” Appropriately, they burst instantly into “We are Motörhead”.

They played a respectable mix of old and new, maintained a steadfast pace all throughout, and stopped only once to take some hefty swigs from their personal bottles of liquor.

I tried to snap a few photos, but truthfully I was too busy knocking fat, soggy behemoths back into the mosh circle (I possessed a nice array of bruises for the next couple weeks).

About half way through, Mikkey Dee treated us to his spectacular ten-minute drum solo. It was pretty fucken magical.

They ended with “Ace of spades” which sent the crowd into spasms, then walked off the stage. After the typical yelling and cheering, of course they came back out, giving us “Overkill”. It was a smashing show but, as usual, I was left wanting more. At any rate, it was the perfect kindling for our blazing trip into the Northwest.

8.5 deadly Arizona bark scorpions out of 10

- Who: Motörhead, Clutch, Valient Thorr
- When: 10 March, 2011
- Where: Tempe, Arizona, USA

- Setlist
- 01. We Are Motörhead
- 02. Stay Clean
- 03. Get Back In Line
- 04. Metropolis
- 05. I Got Mine
- 06. Over the Top
- 07. The Chase Is Better Than the Catch
- 08. Rock Out
- 09. I Know How to Die
- 10. In the Name of Tragedy
- 11. Just ‘Cos You Got the Power
- 12. Killed by Death
- 13. Going to Brazil
- 14. Ace of Spades
- Encore
- 15. Overkill