MASTERS OF REALITY
DECEMBER, 10th 2001 at the Prime Club / Cologne, GER
It seems as if this Monday evening would be one of those usual days, but a close friend of mine called me and asked me if I was interested to watch the MASTERS for free. He works for Zomba and so we were part of the guest-list. It´s obvious to see that I can´t say no. So, a huge "thank you" goes out to Eric, the man who made it all possible. Together with another good friend of him we arrived at the Prime Club and, of course, the club was full of people. I remember when I saw the MASTERS back in 1998 there were only about 60 people. I think that one of the main reasons was that Nick Oliveri and Josh Homme are part of the MASTERS line-up on this tour. Drummer John Leamy (ex-Surgery) was the only one who was also member in 1998.
The MASTERS OF REALITY started with songs from the new album "Deep In The Hole" and although the sound was not the clearest, it was still very impressive. Mastermind Chris Goss was charismatic like ever and he never acted like some kind of a star. The whole crowd start to yell and scream after the first note and it was no big problem for the band to take this gig like winners. The put a lot of energy into the Prime Club and they got more energy back from the audience, so the whole band was positivley surprised about the reaction of the audience. Especially Nick and Josh were having a lot of fun. I don´t need to write a lot about the music of the MASTERS OF REALITY. They played the heaviest Blues Rock you can imagine in such a modern refreshing way and in some songs they use a lot of improvisation. I must admit, that only a live concert shows the real qualities of Chris Goss' songs. The tracklist includes songs from every album and I was really glad to hear tunes like "Ants in the Kitchen" , "She got me" , the very emotional "Rabbit One" (all from 'Sunrise of the Sufferbus') and early tracks like "John Brown" or "The Blue Garden". But the greatest surprise was coming at the end. Chris Goss dedicated the next song to Joey Ramone (RIP) and suddenly the rocked down the house with an old classic Ramones song. It was "Cretin" and it never sounded so heavy like at this night. After that the MASTERS were coming up with the old Chicken Shack song "Down". It´s own of my faves from this old English Bluesrock-trio and it isn´t necessary to say that it was a killer. But if you think this was the last surprise, you will be wrong. After nearly 2 1/2 hours they played the big hit from the last QOTSA album "Feels...
So my dear reader, I can only give you the advice to watch the MASTERS OF REALITY wherever you can. I was total satiesfied after this gig and I hope Chris Goss will come back soon to Europe. Absolutley amazing!!!
(KK)