Motorhead at the St James

Heavy Metal icon Lemmy from Motorhead rocks Auckland's Saint James Theatre on Thursday. Picture / Richard Robinson

If ever there was a concert to go away from with your ears ringing in triumph, then Motorhead is it. But we didn't. We loved it. We were Killed By Death, as the heavy song highlight of the night so riotously stated.

To borrow another Motorhead song title, it's safe to say many in the crowd would be happy to be Deaf Forever after the band's first show in New Zealand since the early 90s. But it was not loud enough. We wanted to be smacked around the face with a wall of Motorhead right from the start.

Everyone in the surrounding pubs was looking forward to it before the gig, and that summed up the vibe inside. Gigs by music legends like Motorhead don't come round too often, but it's not a good look when the band have to ask the crowd - a sell-out - if we want it turned up. There's no need to tell you the reply.

Early on, Lemmy Kilmister - the band's Jack Daniels-guzzling frontman for 30 years - stalked offstage, pretty fierce-like, as if he was about to punch someone over the sound issues. He didn't, but the feedback and the lack of volume was annoying him.

However, Lemmy did not let that worry him as he, drummer Mikkey Dee and guitarist Phil Campbell pummelled, thrashed and bashed their way through hits like Dr. Rock, the, ahem, acoustic Whorehouse Blues, and Overkill.

The baying masses, on three levels at the beautiful St James, loved it. On drums, Dee pounded his kit into the floor and off into oblivion. And Lemmy, he's a freak. After years of excess and hard-living he is a refined and humble animal. Apart from a wee pot belly, which is accentuated because he tucks his shirt into his skin-tight black pants, he's looking pretty fit. He is a woolly Nick Cave, minus the high-kicks. He really is the star because the way he plays bass and spews into the microphone is something to see before you die.

Oh, and they played Ace Of Spades, too and it was great.