I saw Mouse on Mars in Asheville, NC on Wednesday night last week. Oct.20 to be exact. It was the second time I've actually seen them live and about the 20th time I've actually heard performances by them (I've got a handfull of live stuff I've found on the P2P's). Yet again, Mouse on Mars proved to be yet some of the grooviest, funkiest Germans on the planet with an unstopable live show! For this tour they brought the full band: Andi Toma, Jan St. Werner and Dodo Nkishi. Dodo was squarely positioned in the center of the stage with Jan on his left and Andi on his right.
When I first saw them in Atlanta in 2002 (or was it 2001?) Jan was poised behind an angled workspace area featuring a Nord Lead 2 in front, with a 2 tier keyboard stand to his right at a right angle featuring a controller and a mac laptop running reator. In the corner of his L shaped workstation was a rack with an MXR quad phaser. Behind him was a rack with a G4 desktop running Logic with, I think a MOTU card. 828 or something. Andi had his bass rig with a table top full of effects and a couple of mini synths. There was a Nord Modular keyboard that he processes his bass with (filtering via input), plus a Roland TB-303 running to a Lovetone Meatball (www.lovetone.co.uk, if they're still around). There was also some Electro-Harmonix something or other. Micro-synth, bass-synth... one of those. Don't remember which. Not sure what his amp/head combo was. And Dodo of course had his drum kit and vocal mic. This was around the release time of Ideilogy.
THIS time it was a bit different: Jan had one workstation table featuring one mac laptop, the Nord, the Electro-Harmonix whatever it was, a MOTU 828mII, a Mackie 1202, and some rackmount 4 channel mic pre (probably for Dodo's kit). There was a second laptop off to his left, probably substituting for the desktop, BUT... rounding out his table top of toys was not one but TWO Korg Kaoss Pads. Jan spent quite a bit of time tweaking and manipulating sounds coming from his gear with those boxes. In fact, when Jan wasn't playing the lead lines in Twift Shoeblade, Distroia, or Gogonal, he was manipulating sounds on the Kaoss Pads. Dodo was in the center holding the beat and the vocals down while Andi was off to stage right with his rig. He still had his bass, but a guitar too sometimes! He still had the Nord Modular as well but the 303 was gone, replaced with a Korg Electribe-? (the green one... "S" I believe). I'm assuming that was a Meatball next to the nord. He was playing through an Orange head and an Ampeg cabnet.
They opened with All is in Mine, from Radical Connector. Nice light opener. Good way to open up before you drop some serious balls. And what balls did they drop. They played Diskdusk next and just brought the house down. If you've never heard a live version of Diskdusk, let me assure you it is the most ass shakin', groovin, funkin' stompin' dance machine ever. What really makes it is actually hearing Dodo not only bring the funk and hold the funk, keeping perfect time to the Mac's playing the tracks back. Perfectly timed drumming with more pocket than a pair of Levi's. I mean, it was floor stoming dance madness. And that was just the second tune! They still had a whole show to go. All The Old Powers was next, so I had time to recollect for a moment.... only until they seemelessly shifted into Distroia by manipulating the distortion at the end of "Powers" into some hold pattern as orchestrated by Jan on the Kaoss Pads. Oh it was so damn nasty I was picking my jaw up off the floor. Distroia is truly like no other and live it's one to be reckoned with, for sure. Just the sheer punch they get from Dodo's kick and snare will send you soaring. As soon as Dodo drops the beat, you really feel the power of his kit, as well as the force of the rhythm in Distroia. Big, thick punchy and snappy all in one. Real tight with Dodo's perfectly timed rolls and nuances. And that breakdown!!!! It was very forward and powerful, delivering quite the sonic smack in our collective ears.
After that, I was dancing so hard the rest of the show, I don't remember exactly what came next. I know at one point they played Twift Shoeblade, which was the ONLY pre-Niun track they played. Which is to say that not only was it the only Autoditaker track they played, but they didn't play anything from Vulvaland or Iaora Tahiti. Incedentally, they weren't selling copies of Vulvaland at the Merch stand either, but they weren't doing that 2 years ago either. But now that I think about it, I don't think Iaora Tahiti was at the stand either. Hmmm......
Well, back to Twift Shoeblade for a minute. If you're indecisive about seeing MoM live this go around, at least do it for Twift Shoeblade. Actually watching Dodo perform the drum parts in that song is enough to make anyone feel like they got their $15 worth. He's an absolute monster on the drums, rolling off 16th note jungle licks at, you know, 165-170bpm, (whatever the tempo of Twift is). At one point, he started rolling on his floor tom and produces this truly incredible sound. My eyes popped out when I saw and heard that. He really tears it up, especially in Twift Shoeblade. That particular number is extended out to the point that it gets tiresome, but it stops just in time for you to say "yeah, that was good enough".
Other tunes they played were Gogonol (which as always was the straight funk), Wipe That Sound, Send me Shivers (which actually sounded like a remix and was nothing but straight funk... almost Prince-ish!!!!!), and they finished the set with Actionist Respoke. Introduce might have been in there somewhere too, but I can't remember for sure. At one point towards the end they got the guitarist from Ratatat (who I thought were incredibly cool) to play with them and he stuck around for about 3 songs (Wipe was one of them for sure... can't remember the others). After Respoke ended, they left the stage and much applause ensued demanding an encore. So they came back on and ended with Doit. Sadly, Doit was kind of a weak ending. I don't know if Dodo forgot the words or what, but it just seemed as if he fell flat on his vocal part. I think he even missed a part too. Nevertheless, the bulk of the show was pure Mouse on Mars with an unparalleled force that drives the groove straight to your ears and your feet. It was pretty much on par with the other live MoM I've experienced, but that's all you need cause it's bad ass every time!
You might even get to talk to them after the show as I did. Jan was nice enough to speak to us and was well receptive to our presence. He seemed very interested to meet his fans and was very amicable and genuine. I didn't get a chance to meet Dodo or Andi, but I bet they're as nice as Jan was. Actually, Dodo was in the audience during The Junior Boys performance and several people were talking to him so I guess he's at least approachable. Although MoM's concessions lady did start that meeting of Dodo and fans.... maybe the fans were to timid to approach him by themselves. I know I was.
So yeah, don't miss out on the last leg of this MoM tour. It's an experience worth having in your memory registers for years to come. If you really like MoM's music, their live show will blow your brains, I swear. I haven't sweat that much in a long time!
Cary