AC/DC Rocks Copenhagen, Part 2: Let There Be ROCK!

Making it into the Parken arena actually only meant the beginning of a long waiting session. I was there by about 6:30 and the first support band were to hit stage at around 7:30. I killed most of the time carelessly chatting with passerbys and watching people file in. I was kinda taken aback by how relatively small the venue was and how relatively retarded the setup looked. Tina had texted me earlier saying that one of her former co-workers had been in Parken during sound test and said it’d sounded as if the windows were about to blow in.. And I could see why. Someone had placed two relatively unneeded speaker towers about 100 yards from the back wall, meaning that huge amounts of sound got blown right into the concrete walls and the glass windows of the office section.

The result of this, at least during the warmup bands, were an amplification of a phenomenon known to most Danish live music lovers, and feared by me on this very day: The phenomenally bad sound of the Parken arena.. Sitting in the middle of the place and getting the sound from the PA front on only to have it echoed back at you from the back wall.. Just isn’t cool! But it was something you got to live with after local band “The Floor Is Made Of Lava” (I think?), and AC/DC’s choice for warm up “The Answer” came on and delivered a set full of energy and will to be the best that they could. I’ve never heard of these guys before, but they seemed pumped to be on stage.

Around the mid of their set, a helicopter made a low, slow swoop over the stadium, pretty much stating that hey, the band is here which got the crowd even more psyched and got me talking to the people next to me. A nice couple who’d traveled even further than me, were possibly ten years older than me, but every bit as psyched. I ended up talking and going crazy with them for the rest of the night which proved wise because they happened to have these VIP tickets which meant free beers for the rest of the night.. Awesome!! And cudos for sharing with a poor student! Speaking of crowd, I happened to look back at see an ex girlfriend of mine just two seats behind me which prompted me to feel really freaked out, because, really.. What are the odds of that? (I did he math, they’re 8 to 48,000 not factoring in the luck of the draw as far as getting tickets was concerned). But let’s leave it at that, we were there for the music anyways.. That, and to go absolutely fucking ballistic.

Which we did at 8:43 exactly when AC/DC’s opening animation hit the giant screens and the sound started hitting us full force. Then, a giant freight train literally(!!) crashed onto the stage and out emerged the coolest midget alive, Angus Young, who tore right into the new hit single “Rock ‘n’ Roll Train”.. Two hours of mayhem had begun.. Or as front man Brian Johnson put it: “We’re gonna do some rock’n'roll tonight, and the party starts right here” And from then on, I didn’t really touch the ground much. AC/DC’s sound crew must have done quite a job as they actually managed to produce a pretty good sound for the show.. And while definitely not perfect, all was forgotten three songs into the set when rock classic “Back In Black” caused a crowd reaction louder than anything I’ve ever heard in my life. As someone so obviously put it: “If you can put one of rock music’s greatest classics as the third song in your set, you know you’re in for good things to come!” .. And that we were! Solid rock classics such as “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” and “Shot Down In Flames” followed with every section of the crowd singing along at the top of their lungs while pounding their fists, fingers and horns in the air in a perfectly synchronized manner. Watching the spectacle from up high in the stands was an experience to say the least.

Then we were treated to a small breather where I just had time to be handed a beer by the female half of the couple I’d hooked up with before Angus (with admitted difficulty) launched into the opening riff of “Thunderstruck” which caused the whole place to erupt again and me to freak out more than a 12 year old Britney Spears fans over the fact that this was actually happening and that I’d just been handed a beer with perfect timing no less.

The only weak parts of the set were probably the new numbers off the Black Ice album.. Not that they were bad, they were just not classics and didn’t really have the same crowd response.. But I didn’t really mind that much. For me, they offered some welcome breathers to just hang back a little and actually sip my free beers for a change. Throughout the whole thing I actually had to remind myself that I was watching people who were generally in their 60’s on stage. The energy and intensity was just amazing. Brian Johnson was all over the place was was Angus Young.. Who still, at the ripe age of 54, methinks, does his strip routine on stage.. Which was a riot to watch.. Because when have you ever seen thousands of grown men in absolute ecstasy over a decidedly ugly midget stripping down all the way to his AC/DC branded boxers?

While Angus and Johnson got most of the attention, it’s actually the rhythm section that deserves the most credit because while they really weren’t seen they’re part of the reason why AC/DC is such a tight live band. The drumming bass playing and rhythm guitar work was impeccable and professional. Simple, uncomplicated and spot on, something only AC/DC sems to be able to get away with for 36 years on end.

But wait, there was more? Of course there were no way we’d leave without hearing more classics such as “You Shook Me All Night Long”, “Hells Bells” and “TNT”. The first featured more singing and dancing in the crowd and a lot lf couples huddling together for obvious reasons”, “Hells Bells” were loud as fucking hell.. And naturally featured the symbolic lowering of the bell on stage and Johnson taking a swing..  “TNT” gave the classic rock statement of “Everything Louder Than Anything Else” new meaning. I’m actually pretty sure my ears were bleeding by then but I really didn’t care. One thing I knew for sure, though, is that I DID notice the entire foundation of the structure shaking during the frantic chants of “Oi! Oi! Oi!” during the song.. Crazy!

The ending of the show was as predictable as it was awesome: “Whole Lotta Rosie” followed by “Let There Be ROCK!” the latter featured a pretty awesome light show and Angus Young monkeying around like a mentally retarded kid on speed, eventually culminating in him charging into the sound tent half way down the field from the stage and being raised high in the air on a 10 meter platform, soloing left and right as lights illuminated the entire crowd and tons of confetti shot left and right.. A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!

Though, after that things got a little drawn out for the first time that evening as he charged back onto stage and extended the song past the 19-minute mark with more soloing and begging for crowd attention. I could’ve been without the last five minutes or so of this, mainly because I really had to pee..

Eventually Angus did calm down, stopped his monkey business and cut off the soloing, with that the band said goodnight and headed off stage.. At which point my newfound friends started to move to pack up and leave.. Something I of course told them to forget all about because, as I told them, I was willing to bet the last remaining dollar or so of my student grant that we’d yet to hear “Highway To Hell” and “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)”.. And with that, the lights came back on and the arena once more exploded in almost tear-filled ecstasy as the 1979 classic “Highway To Hell” rang out into the Copenhagen night air.

While I in no way wanted this particular song to come next, I was also dying for what I knew would be next, the full on 21 one gun salute that is “For Those About To Rock” which was delivered in exactly the way we’d expected, crowd chanting, lights, fire and, of course, guns and all… It was beyond epic, and that 21 gun salute, by the way, is beyond loud in real life! My ears are still ringing and I don’t fucking care!

And with that, it was over. As quickly and as suddenly as it had begun just over two hours before. As a large fireworks display filled the front stage area, the band ducked off stage and the long hard struggle to get out of our seats, into the bathroom and from there on home now began. As I fought my way through the crowd, I looked at some of the reactions to it all.. Some had obviously passed out in their seat either from beer, exhaustion or both, others were still standing nailed to the ground, staring at the stage, awestruck and unable to comprehend what had happened. In other places, fully grown, fat and balding men in leather jackets were falling around each other’s necks, clearly almost moved to tears over what they’d just been witnessing. Others again just filed along, chanting “AC-DC .. AC-DC..” over and over again.

However we chose to cope with the experience, we all knew we’d just had the concert experience of a lifetime. For many of us it was a boyhood (or girlhood?) dream come through. And we’re all pretty confident that seeing AC/DC live in our home country was a once in a lifetime experience. At least for those of us who weren’t there 13 years ago when they last visited.. It may seem that I’m just ranting on and on, but it really was that great  and that magical an experience. Ask anyone who was there and they’ll tell you the same.. In just as many words, or more..

THANK YOU, AC/DC! From the bottom of my rock ‘n’ roll heart.. THANK YOU!

Still, it makes me wonder.. Johan watches Ed Wood!

I watched Ed Wood today – the semi-biographical Burton movie, that is, not the actual works of the so-called worst movie maker in the world – more by accident than by anything else.. I was at Dunkel’s plowing through his collection and jokingly went.. Hey, why don’t we watch Ed Wood? And much to my surprise he went sure, so we put it on.. And I was about to be surprised in many more ways.

Firstly, I didn’t even know this was a Tim Burton movie.. Which was a welcome surprise. Also, I had no idea it starred Johnny Depp.. But that was of course just another welcome surprise because everybody knows that Tim Burton + Johnny Depp = awesome!

Now, I had every cell in my brain telling me that a movie about the worst movie-maker in Hollywood history was either gonna be really strange or really bad and/or pathetic, too.. Well, this movie has Burton behind the wheel so a the weirdness factor was a dead give-away.. But, apparently you can also leave it to Burton to make a movie about the worst director ever both gripping, funny, touching and thought-provoking.. While leaving out the bad and/or pathetic factor.. Another small surprise.

And speaking of leaving things to people.. Leave it to Johnny Depp to spend half a movie wearing ladies’ underwear, v-neck angora sweaters, skirts,  a stuffed bra and a blonde wig.. And still have every woman on the face of the planet thinking he’s drop dead sexy and leaving them in need of having his babies! Seriously, I mean, come on.. How the fuck are the rest of us gonna compete with that? Whenever I .. When I occasionally .. That one time.. I wore women’s clothing, I spent most of the time stopping pictures from being posted because I figured it’d be really bad PR.. Johnny Depp films it for the world to see and is STILL a sex symbol.. For the love of God..

But I digress.. What I really wanted to talk about, since I’m actually a huge Johnny Depp fan, was how fascinated I was by watching a Depp movie.. And being completely blown away by the character portrayal and acting.. Of someone whose name wasn’t Depp. I mean, Depp was good, but Martin Landau’s performance as my personal hero of the horror genre, Béla Lugosi, was impressive to say the least.. The portrayal of the washed up, aging Hungarian drug fiend in the last year’s of his life is so spot on, well done and haunting that Dunkel and I at times seriously thought that they were either using stock footage or that Lugosi himself had risen from his grave.

So, I ended up actually liking the movie more for its portrayal of Lugosi over that of Ed Wood himself.. Which was another surprise, but only a smaller one as I have, for whatever strange reason, been really captivated by Lugosi since first watching the 1931 version of Dracula.. The supporting cast in general was way better than Depp in this one, and I’m probably gonna get slammed for saying that.. But there you go, that’s just how I felt.. And how can you not love a motley crew of old Hungarians, psychics, busty vampires, pro wrestlers and Bill Murray playing the part of an obviously flaming young man in search of a sex change? Really!

In conclusion, Ed Wood’s own movies may not have been very good.. In fact some claim they’re the worst in the world.. And they’re probably right.. Me, I’ve just finished watching Robo Vampire the other day, so I’m more than looking forward to  an Ed Wood marathon with drinks and all that jazz.. It can’t possibly be worse! But either way, his movies may have been bad.. But the semi-biographical movie made about him certainly wasn’t.. Mr Burton, I tilt my hat to you!

We Are The Road Crew – Meat Loaf in Kolding 2008

“Are you with the band?” – is a question I’ve never been asked before, until this Friday.. Where I was asked said question maybe 7 or 8 times.. “Whose band,” you may ask? Oh, no-one major.. Just a certain Mr. Michael Lee Aday,  aka Meat Loaf, who happened to be in town.

By now, you may be a little confused as to how I came to be associated with one of the major players in the field of classic rock and frankly, my dears, I was too.. But it’s a long, strange story that somehow makes sense in the end. See, it all started on Wednesday when I received a message on Facebook from my buddy Jimmi who asked if I’d be interested in investing a few hours Friday in setting up lights, sound and various other things for that night’s Meat Loaf show in Kolding – in exchange for a free ticket and a few free beers.. Umm, well, me having been somewhat of an admirer of Meat Loaf for the past.. Uhh.. 20 year or so, this seemed like more than a decent deal to me.

After asking permission from Louise, who has been reluctant to allow me to attend more shows after my complete and utter destruction of myself at last month’s Iron Maiden show and getting the thumbs up from her, I accepted Jimmi’s terms and started randomly jumping for joy around my apartment again.. Yea, I’m a pretty lucky bitch these days. I made pretty good use of my Thursday in the company of Dunkel and Louise, watching movies at Dunkel’s, sipping some premium whiskys and drinking a few beers, relaxing and having fun.. It was good times, and I ended up getting a great night’s sleep, despite having to get up at fuck AM the next morning.

Friday morning eventually rolled around and despite me being more than a little upset about having to get up at the un-godly hour of 8 AM, I actually woke three minutes before the alarm went off, and silently cursing those who got to sleep in, I put some clothes on, grabbed a Pepsi and headed out the door towards the concert ground at the stadium.. By way of a baker downtown, of course.. I don’t function too well in the AM – and especially not on an empty stomach. I arrived at the stadium at around 8:55 and pretty quickly located Jimmi and the other boys from the Uboat who were up on the stage, pretending to be working on rigging the lights. I asked Jimmi about our obligations for the day and he informed me that we were pretty much just to stand around and wait for someone to tell us to do some five minute chore, then repeat said pattern.. Which I thought was a pretty good idea, so I jumped right into it.

For the first hour or so, nothing much happened, we helped rig, angle, raise and break a few lights, we also dragged a few boxes back and forth, shot a few photos and then went and ate breakfast which was apparently included in the whole deal.. Oh well, there’s always room for another roll or two, right?

As we returned to the stage after breakfast, I first noticed that for once I wasn’t feeling too out of place what with most of the stage hands walking around sporting either long hair or a shaved head plus some sort of a band t-shirt and blue jeans. As a matter of fact, I was pretty amused to see people shoot the Uboat guys more than a couple of weird looks because of their Lacoste polos, Superdry jeans and what have you.. Ah yes, stereotypes are such fun! Things took a turn for the even better when Meat Loaf’s own crew arrived, most of them sporting either band shirts and/or crew/driver shirts, thus scoring me even more points for the washed up and sleep deprived roadie look I had going for me that day.. And essentially allowing me to twist things to my advantage. You see, there seemed to be some confusion amongst the people present as to whether or not I was a mere volunteer or a member of Meat’s crew which kinda rocked because while volunteers had to do anything that anyone said, people naturally assumed that crew members knew what they were doing and wouldn’t dream of bossing them around.

Alas, I’m not really one to take advantage, so I kept providing honest answers to questions such as “are you with the band?” “haven’t I seen you on some other build?” and “don’t you work for Cat?” – It was probably for the better anyways as Meat brought a lot of shit to the table and thus busied all of us for the next three hours hauling monitors, instruments, stage props, costumes, risers, and what the fuck have you. It was hard, tiring work, but also quite fun for a rock geek such as myself, well, the bruises and blisters aside anyways. Besides, it’s kinda fun to say that you’ve helped set up the stage, instruments and stage show for f’ing Meat Loaf.. Even if some of the tasks were tedious or downright dangerous. For example balancing behind the back drop and the back of the stage (which are like 20 cms a part, by the way) with a bunch of steel beams seemed more than a little wobbly and dangerous at the time, whereas mounting huge inflatable dolls to a bunch of fans seemed downright silly (but looked pretty cool during the encores that evening).

Eventually, at 1 PM, our shift was over and after a quick lunch, we all headed back to rest for a few hours and shower up (most of us being dirty as fuck all after crawling around on stage for about five hours) before rendez vouzing at the Uboat at 4 PM for a few warm up beers and some drunken fun. We sat around here for a few hours talking (remind me never to party with a crowd of devoted football fans ever again, I just don’t know what to say in conversation), playing drinking games and having fun. Until eventually, at around 7:30, we decided to head down and harvest the fruit of our labor, a free show and a fuck-load of free beers.

As we entered the concert grounds, we realized that we were maybe a little out of place.. Never in my life have I seen so many long-haired men over the age of 50, but it was pretty fun to witness such a spectacle, it was generally impressive though I was a little upset with a few things, namely the poor turn-out and the ridiculous prices. The latter might’ve played a vital role in me getting pretty wasted pretty quickly as food servings were ridiculously small and expensive and thus the only thing we had to lean on were the 65 or 70 free beers that we got to split between the ten of us or however many we were. Suffice to say that is no-one went home thirsty that night.. Or without an embarrassing shot of them winding up on Facebook the next day as there was a lot of meeting up with random crazy strangers, wearing weird wigs.. Or walking around without pants on for that matter.. People really should know better than to tell impatient Uboat regulars waiting in like to “keep their pants on” .. I’d expect nothing less that to see at least three of them take their pants of – which is exactly what happened that particular night. Luckily, I managed to get my pants back on before I ran into Lars Johnsen, a friendly middle-aged gentleman who’d been teaching web architecture and other subjects at uni and who seemed more than a little surprised to see me and hear that I’d helped set up the entire thing.. But that’s just the way I roll.

As for the show? Well, the warm up band seemed strangely out of place like someone had just gone “someone get us a popular local band within this particular price range”, I dunno.. It was just weird.. Some Danish pop band opening for Meat Loaf, I didn’t get it. Mr. Loaf himself took a ridiculous amount of time to get on stage, I thought, but once he did, I forgot all about bitching. None of the boys (or girls) felt like moving away from the beer tent so I led a solo charge to the front and ended up standing pretty far up front a long with a bunch of people who were visibly older than me but delighted to see a “youngster” up front as well, I got a lot of pats on the back that night for sure.

The first couple of songs, I didn’t know but I thought them to be pretty rocking and people were most certainly fired up and ready to go. Meat seemed a little limited by his recent voice issues but seemed to do whatever he could to deliver his best performance. It all seemed a little tame at first but once he kicked into “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” (yay!!) things got moving and his stage presence and show picked up quite a bit as well. “You Took The Words Right Out of my Mouth” followed and the crowd was sold, Johan included.. “Bat Out Of Hell” was just plain awesome and a song I’d always wanted to see in concert – whereas I found “I’d Do Anything For Love” a bit lacking despite my recent unexplainable fascination with classic love songs.. I dunno, I just wasn’t feeling it.

As for the encores, I knew I wouldn’t recognize them (having spotted the set list in advance), so I fell back and hung out with the boys at the beer tent for a while, shouting and yelling at various innocent passer-bys. I then, following some confusion, exited the stadium, picked up a cheap-ass souvenir shirt from questionable sources (mainly because the one I’d been wearing was drenched in sweat, some of which was probably not my own) and headed down to Louise’s to join the party she’d apparently ended up hosting that evening. It was all good fun but the beers must’ve gone to my head a bit because, well, once arriving and sitting down, having a few Leffes and a dram of whisky with Dunkel, I started feeling mighty tired and after fighting it for a while, decided to just curl up on Louise’s bed and let the rest of the party fend for themselves.

This proved a lot easier in theory as Dunkel and Penny had set out to be proper assholes and decided to hassle me by bombarding me with Louise’s army of stuffed animals.. So not fair, you guys! The party went on for a while till Louise, too, started to feel a little sleepy and the rest of the gang took a hint and started to leave.. Or well, some of them left and suddenly more people showed up as Svart suddenly made a surprise appearance at around 3 AM to pick up a jacket that he had forgotten weeks earlier. He seemed a little surprised to see only Louise and I around, but then again, he was so fucked up that something as trivial as a lady bug would’ve probably confused the fuck out of him.. We ended up hailing a cab for him and sending him home before eventually just crashing and burning.. ’twas a mighty fine day, but I wish I’d saved a little energy for the after party.. But apparently a seemingly unlimited supply of free beers does wear you out in the end.

What’s to say about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?

Right.. So in my continuous quest to figure out how not to do things, I have apparently now also taken to taking the lives of innocent plants.. At any rate, as it turns out, if you’re actively trying to grow live herbs in your windowsill then taking a pan and heating it to the point of smoking before adding a measure of boiling broth is not the smartest thing to do.. The result is not only a weird fog smelling strangely like chicken but also a grey-ish chicken infused basil plant.. Of the dead variety!

Ah, but I’m side tracking – I merely intended to display my newest stint of stupidity.. Well, actually my only (more or less) constructive action performed these past few days.

As you may well have imagined, I’ve been more or less locked up reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.. I’ll wholeheartedly admit that I don’t know what it is with me and these books. As much as I always want to take jabs at J. K. Rowling for some obvious flaws in her writing and for being rather unoriginal, I can’t deny the fact that she spins one hell of a captivating and easily read story. I honestly only abandoned the story in favor of sleep, food and a bit of much needed exercise.

I’ve been sworn to secrecy as regards the plot of the book from a couple of people whom I know actually read this blog, so I’ll be nice and not give anything away.. Instead I’ll merely mention a few observations:

If you liked the other books, you’ll more than likely love this one. In my mind it’s easily better than the last couple of books. If, unlike me, you don’t pay attention to and think too much about silly little holes in the logic or the story, you’ll probably enjoy it even more. Yes, all the lose ends are tied up. Yes, everything is explained. Yes, most of it was predictable but still captivatingly told.

And finally: Yes, I was pissed with the ending. But that’s something to discuss later or elsewhere. All I’ll say, without spoiling anything is..

I’ll challenge anyone  to tell me that the story would not have been a hell of a lot better, more complete and less silly if it had just ended at the end chapter 34.

Still, a good, entertaining read which I finished at somewhere around 6:30 this morning, so needless to say, I’m a bit groggy right now.. There, don’t think I said too much!

Friday the 13th: Metallica @ Vestereng, Aarhus, Denmark!

Friday the 13th always had an ominous ring to it.. Maybe that’s why Christian and I were more or less pursued by bad luck all throughout the day which is something you don’t really want to be when you’re off to see the Gods of Thunder, METALLICA, perform one of their precious few live gigs in Denmark..

I’d even tried to make things go as smooth as possible by booking us a couple of seats on a concert bus heading directly from Kolding to Vestereng in Århus where the band was playing.. It should’ve been smooth sailing from the start, they even promised that they were among the precious few companies who actually stuck to their schedule.. Well, so much for that, the bus showed up 15 minutes late.. And ended up leaving some 35 minutes late as we had to make a detour back to pick up a couple of people who had missed another bus. Oh well, at least we had cold, cheap beers for the ride..

Well, no, about 15 minutes north of Kolding, we ran out of beers, meaning that the 70 some people on board had consumed five 30 packs of beer and dug well into two 24 cases of Smirnoff Ice since we’d left Kolding.. Which was admittedly a bit insane.. So, instead of beer, we had to settle for.. traffic.. An accident up ahead caused us to spend more than half an hour stuck in traffic.. Maybe an hour, I wasn’t counting.. I was busy having to pee and eventually had to bribe my way ahead in line for the bathroom by spending one of the last beers on the bus. Which I could’ve more or less spared as the bus driver was eventually persuaded to just pull over to the side of the road letting the entire gang relieve themselves at the shoulder of the motor way.. We eventually arrived in Århus about an hour and a half behind schedule, leaving us only 30 minutes to get to the concert area before the first band of the evening hit the stage.. Just in time for a perfect example of the “too many cooks” problem. Rather than ending up at the concert site, an impressive tribunal of drunks took charge of directions and landed us at the car parking area some 5 kms away from the site. After an attempt to leave, a second trip back to the parking lot, and finally getting some sense talked into the drunken gang, we set sail for the concert site. We arrived at the bus parking at just around 7 PM, just in time to head the first band of the evening hit stage while we went on our way to the entrance.. And this begins the concert experience.

Mnemic

Well, what to say about Mnemic, the first band of the evening? It’s hard to really say much other than that they provided a nice backdrop for our walk to the concert site. I was expecting them to suck, but I can’t say that they really did – they seemed to play with a fair bit of energy, a fair bit of double bass drum and a hell of a lot of anger.. It’s one of those bands that I’d have probably enjoyed seeing at a much smaller venue.. But as for yesterday they provided a nice bit of background music for making our way onto the field, getting through security and stocking up on a few beers and some food. We never really got to pay much attention as we were either too busy achieving sensory overload from the number of people and everything going on around us. Christian, by the way, had done his best in dressing up for the part by wearing a all-black tshirt for a change, but still I got a feeling that he felt a little out of place with his short, neat hair, distinct lack of band logo shirts and our level of sobriety.. The poor, pure, little soul even seemed surprised to see and smell people lighting up joints outside the concert site.. But boy was he about to come around.

Volbeat

We’d barely managed to get our food and beers when Volbeat’s crew started doing their sound testing so we knew we were in for a rather laid back experience with Volbeat.. As we had a four-pack of beer each to guard and therefor couldn’t venture too far into the crowd. So we spend Volbeat’s set literally about half a kilometer away from the stage, just chilling and having a few beers which was a bit odd but also enjoyable for me as I’m used to being way up front and being pummeled half to death during Volbeat shows.. Even so, we managed to have fun and enjoy the show.

As always, the boys opened with “The Human Instrument” and treated us to a small bunch of their best love songs.. “Mr. & Mrs. Ness”, “Poll of Booze-Booze-Booza” and “Radio Girl” come to mind.. Front man, Michael Poulsen, seemed strangely nervous or whatever during “Radio Girl” and managed to screw up the chorus, but when he finally did get them right, Christian and I were both ready with a thunderous chant of “FOR HELVEDE!!!!” which left some of the family fathers and soccer moms standing around us at the time wondering just what the hell were wrong with us!

Highlights from Volbeat’s set (naturally) included their infamous Dusty Springfield cover “I Only Wanna Be With You” – now with even more growling on Michael Poulsen’s behalf.. I love it! And (of course) a performance of their radio hit, “The Garden’s Tale” – with Johan Olsen from Danish punk band Magtens Korridorer delivering guest vocals on the Danish part of the song.. The latter song got the best reaction out of the crowd thus far that evening and kinda hinted that good things were in store for us…

Time for intermission, a much needed chance to dispose of the four or five beers we’d had since arriving and to start pushing our way as far up front as we possibly could.. Which was only really a few hundred meters at this point.

METALLICA

There’s always something magical about waiting for Metallica.. There really is something in the air.. And no, I’m not just talking about the smell of numerous joints being passed around.. Naw, it’s that general feeling of expectation, 50,000+ people knowing what’s about to happen, trying their best to be patient.. Even the monotonous sounds of the guitar and drum techs testing the instruments get a huge roar from the crowd.

For a while before the band hit stage they had music playing over the PA but it wasn’t loud enough for us to hear anything.. when the speakers returned to normal volume for AC/DC’s “It’s A Long Road To The Top (If You Wanna Rock And Roll)”, we had a pretty good idea what was about to happen.. Surely enough, the lights came on, the song was followed by Ennio Morricone’s beautiful “The Ecstasy of Gold”, half empty beer cups and other shit started flying left and right and thousands upon thousands of hands flewinto the air as the Gods of Metal hit stage accompanied by possibly the loudest crowd roar I’ve ever heard in my life.

Without a word, they tore into the opening riff of “Creeping Death”, a 1984 classic, which initially made me think that fuck, this is way too hardcore for Christian’s taste. Christian, in return looked at me, gave thunderous roar of his own and actually proceeded to headbang with me.. Talk about living it out! And what a way to kick things off! “For Whom The Bell Tolls” followed which was a bit of a weird experience.. I mean, it sounded pretty good for a while, but less than half way into the song, the sound disappeared.. Unbeknownst to the band who just kept playing on. The result was weird to watch.. The band was up there giving it their best, producing nothing but pure silence, for a while the dedicated fans in the crowd just kept singing but the singing eventually turned to booing and whistling and eventually into a 50,000+ people rendition of the classic Danish song “Vi Sejler Op Af Åen”

Metallica getting booed, you don’t see that too often..

Even more surprisingly the band just suddenly left the stage without a word and we were left wondering fending for ourselves, wondering what the hell was going on. After a while of silence, I decided I might as well go pee and so I did.. As luck would have it (Friday the 13th anyone), I heard the intro to “Wherever I may Roam” sound out just as I’d finished my business, which let to the rather fucked up sight of the 30 some people in line peeing up against the fence literally rocking out with their cocks out.. I wouldn’t think headbanging while peeing would lead to anything good, so I hurried back to find Christian and the other people we were sorta socializing with at the time. I made it back for the second half of the song, stopping along the way to headbang and sing a bit with whatever small groups I ran into.. Good times!

James apologized to the crowd saying that Lars’ makeup was running and that they had to stop the show because he wanted to look the best for his people which received quite a few laughs.. Either way, the band didn’t seem very affected by the glitch and we spend the next two and a half hours getting the living shit kicked out of us by a bunch of middle-aged men most of which were old enough to be my father.. And oh fuck did we enjoy every minute of it! “Disposable Heroes” and the full version of “… And Justice For All” were followed by the only “new” songs to make it into the set “The Memory Remains” (1997) and “No Leaf Clover” (1999). Then came Orion (a 1986 instrumental) followed by a downright awesome performance of the 23 year-old ballad, “Fade To Black”, which I’ve been dying to hear live (I can now die a happy man), the FULL version of Master of Puppets and last but not least “Battery” which I decided sounded faster than ever.

James then said goodnight, and we pretty much all knew what was coming. Metallica are, after all, pretty predictable when it comes to encores. After a short intermission, Christian and I were offered the chance to completely wreck our voices and bodies to “Sad But True” then wind down a little for the ever so classic “Nothing Else Matters” before the lights were eventually dimmed and the sound of gun fire rang out accompanied by various explosions and pyro on stage and finally a bit of aerial fireworks as the guys kicked into a classic and extremely well done rendition of “One” before finally saying goodnight (again) with “Enter Sandman”.

I have a theory that you can say a lot about the size of a band by the number of encores they play, and we true fans of course knew that they weren’t finished. After a bit of the usual joking “Are you guys still here?” we were treated to an almost insanely fast version of “Whiplash”, one of their first songs ever recorded, which I really mostly like for the part where James screams “We’ll never stop, we’ll never quit cause YOU’RE Metallica!” – always the crowd pleaser! And of course they saved the best for last.. James went and dedicated the last song of the evening to all the diehard fans who’ve stuck with Metallica throughout the years – as a fan for ten years now myself, I’d like to think that this applies to me as well.. Either way, the song was “Seek And Destroy”, another first album classic. Another crowd pleaser which offers a lot of crowd participation.. Though I’m not really sure my throat likes Metallica today for forcing us all to scream “SEEK AND DESTROY!!” over and over again after two and a half hours of singing and screaming in the first place.. But I’ll forgive them.. If you’re not hurting here and there and sporting a sore throat after a heavy metal concert, you haven’t done well enough!

The ride back home went surprisingly more smooth than you’d have thought, especially since going home involved rounding up 71 drunken metal heads who’d been left to fend for their own and make their own way back to the bus.. We eventually left Århus at just past 1 AM and arrived back in Kolding shortly after 2:30 where we went back to my place for a couple of beers, and eventually ended up going to bed somewhere at around 7:15 AM after drinking whatever we had left of beer and shots and deciding against opening any more bottles.. In recognition of the fact that we probably also had to sleep at some point.

VOL-FUCKING-BEAT!!

3 March, 2007, Godset, Kolding, Denmark.. Volbeat live and in color at 9 PM!

For our usual loyal crew, the party started at around 2 PM when Iben, Robert, Mads and I kicked off our warm-up session by getting hold of a case of beer and watching Slayer’s “Still Reigning” DVD and then listening to Volbeat on pretty much constant rotation. Our little party was soon joined by a bunch of other people and eventually there were 10 of us, getting in the mood by throwing down a few beers, a little booze and listening to metal-a-plenty. Eventually (finally!) the time came for us to pack up, leave and make our way towards Godset, the local venue. We were in pretty high spirits by now, not drunk by any means, just psyched up and ready to go!

When we were arrived, we were kinda shocked to see the number of people that had already arrived, but still we were able to make our way right up to the front of the stage and position ourselves pretty much dead centre in front of the new security rails that had obviously been put up sometime after the last time we saw the guys. Maybe they figured with the craziness last time around, they’d better get some rails.. Who knows? Either way, we knew from the start that things were gonna get pretty rowdy that night. Maybe because Ricki had some success in starting a small mosh pit even before the warm-up band had hit the stage, heck even before any background music was pouring from the speakers.. But apparently his own chants of “WE’RE GONNA RUN AMOK!” was enough for him.

I’d been sorta interested to see the warmup band, Powderhog, I’d only heard one song of theirs and frankly didn’t like it much, but people kept telling me how awesome they were, so I figured I’d just have to wait and see.. And boy did the ever impress me. They were actually pretty damn good and really helped set the mood. In record time we had a pretty big mosh-pit growing behind us and a couple of girls in the crowd were starting to look a little uncomfortable while the rest of the crowd were starting to look hot. After about 30 minutes, the warm-up band left the stage leaving a strange aura of suspense which just kept growing in the 30-40 minutes it took for Volbeat to set up for their performance.

Thankfully the sound tests and setting up didn’t take as much time as it did last time I saw the band but in the end, we were still growing a little impatient when the lights finally dimmed and an extended intro to “The Human Instrument” started playing followed by a thundering roar from the crowd and an enthusiastic chant of “Volbeat, Volbeat,Volbeat!” The cheering and applause continued as the band hit stage one by one and before I knew it, we were into the opening riff and all of us were thrashing left and right, singing along, raising the horns and what have you in classic heavy metal manner.

The boys seemed generally flattered by the reaction of the crowd and were many times forced to just stop and smile or laugh between songs unable to really get a word through because of the lot of us chanting our appreciation and support. The songs from the new album (a few copies of which were actually thrown to fans by the band) were greatly appreciated by the crowd and despite it only having been out for a few weeks, people were still thrashing and singing along just as they did with the old songs. My favorite tracks included “Sad Man’s Tongue” and “Radio Girl.” Radio Girl, especially, was a huge live experience.. There’s just something about you and a couple of hundred other people screaming “FOR HELVEDE!!!!” at the top of your lungs during a song without as much as a weird stare in return.

The setlist included a great mix of new tracks and old tunes. “Rebel Monster” off their first album beat the living shit out of my neck and head and litterally left me dizzy well into the next song. Songs such as “Soulweeper,” “Something Else Or” and “Always WU” have already become classics in my mind, and the band once more delivered an awesome live cover of Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Wanna Be With You” which featured not only one hell of an evil opening growl from lead singer, Michael Poulsen, but also me singing parts of the chorus as he suddenly shoved the microphone in my face.. Interesting.. I think I managed to fuck up the lyrics, too, good job.. But then again, I’d been moshing and headbanging quite a lot in the minutes leading up to the incident and to be honest it wasn’t exactly funny at times, like when people were delivering stiff elbows to your face and neck in an attempt to squeeze past you, or when we had to use Robert as a weapon and have him lean against the crowd and then have three or four of us pushing against him in an effort to hold back a wave of crazy Czech people.

That aside, the remainder of the concert was a blast! I did recognize a few familiar faces. A couple of guys from the last show I attended came over and shook my hand and told me good job last time and whatever, which was kinda crazy, but oh well.. We did go relatively nuts last time. I also spotted André from the Volbeat forums, but he was too busy taking a bunch of awesome pictures to pay notice to me.. But that’s okay, I totally forgive you, buddy, I stole a few of your pictures for my Flickr account in return. I did manage to get one person’s attention, though, During an incredible performance of “The Garden’s Tale” where the entire crowd really got into the song, I look up to the right of the stage and notice Tinepigen, aka Jon the drummer’s girlfriend, who I’d exchanged a few words with online, standing there, smiling at me and throwing me a few finger gestures. I quickly throw up the horns and somehow manage to go even more crazy.. Which, in retrospect, I’m glad I did, because just afterwards, Jon is about to go hand his drumsticks to the crowd and Tine actually walks over with him, verifies my identity and then points at me telling him to hand me one of the sticks. He tries doing so, but in the confusion, it’s grabbed by someone else. Tine now grabs the other stick and tries to hand it directly to me but sadly someone snatches it right out of her fingers.

Oh well, I shrug my shoulders and thank her for at least trying, thinking that’s pretty much the end of it and preparing myself for the encores instead, when suddenly I get tapped on the shoulder, spin around and notice Tine standing there and in what to me can only be described as a totally unreal move, grabs hold of me and drags me through the crowd, through the security rails and behind the stage backdrop, telling me that “I need that drumstick!” So I’m pretty much handed the experience of a lifetime, getting to stand there right on the edge of the stage with her, sharing one of the bands beers and listening to the encores AND then being personally handed one of Jon’s drumsticks after the show is over.. Totally fucking unreal! I’m not really usually at a loss for words, but I think pretty much the only more or less coherent words to leave my mouth at that time was “Wow!” and “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” – So to those of you wondering why I’m still praising this band for their dedication to their fans, well there you go! Thanks is but a humble word.

As the show ends and I dash back out to my friends not wanting to overstay my welcome, I’m pretty much in a state of euphoria. My neck and head have stopped hurting, my bruises seem less important and eh, life’s just generally good at the time I remember purchasing a t-shirt as I’m pretty much drenched in not only my own sweat but also that of the people that were surrounding me at the front of the stage, so I figured I needed a change of clothes before grabbing my jacket and moving on. As I move on and walk by myself back towards the city center, there’s a great feeling in the air, people are ecstatic and happy, singing and laughing, I’m offered a beer by a couple of perfect strangers as I walk by their car.. They even offer me several hundred Danish Kroner for my drumstick, but as the real fan boy that I am, I hang on to it.

The perfect evening comes to an end sitting on the fire escape staircase of the Student House with Tina, watching the lunar eclipse, sipping champagne and getting a well-deserved neck massage for my trouble.

Rock The Rebel / Metal The Devil

It’s still only February, but even so, this year, Christmas has come early for fans of Danish metal! Topping the chart of most anticipated Danish rock albums this year, Volbeat’s second album “Rock The Rebel / Metal The Devil” had a lot to live up to. Time and time again, the question had been asked if it could in any way be more perfect and well-produced that its predecessor, “The Strength / The Sound / The Songs.”

Well, let’s get that question out of the way; as soon as the stores opened today, I went and forked out some of my hard earned cash on this album, and I’m here to tell you to believe the hype! This album not only continues in much the same way as the band left off on their debut album, but also raises the bar and sets a new standard for what proper “Elvis Metal” should sound like.

Volbeat are one of those crazy bastard rock styles that are kind of impossible to explain, they have to be experienced. Think Metallica meets Elvis with a hint of rockabilly attitude and a shot of Johnny Cash to boot. Hell, if you don’t know what they sound like despite my never-ending onslaught of propaganda, go check out the media section of their website, and you’ll get some idea.

Their new album pretty much follows the successful formula of their debut record but with added depth, twists and a greater extend of playfulness. From the opening track, “The Human Instrument”, and through the record, Volbeat’s familiar style of blasting riffs, funky drumming and powerful vocals become apparent, but is also followed by less familiar aspects: Lap steel, banjos, acoustic guitars, backing vocals add to the mix creating a familiar yet interesting and captivating atmosphere.

The album features your average mean and heavy songs, “The Human Instrument” seems the perfect opener, followed by the strangely melancholy yet delightfully evil “Mr. & Mrs. Ness”. The album’s third song is probably the most experimental track of all, mixing Danish and English vocals in a strange borderline punk-like mix which has ticked off some critics yet at the same time taken most of mainstream Denmark by storm.. So, small side note to the critics out there, I’m sorry but if a song makes even my decidedly non-metal female friends pull my hair, demanding I play it.. Then that’s pretty much a hit in my eyes.

“Devil And The Blue Cat’s Song” is as fast and heavy as Volbeat will probably ever be (if they decide to play that one alongside “Rebel Monster” at the next show I attend, I’m willing to bet I’ll be a head short by the end of the evening due to excessive headbanging)
but is nicely evened out by the following track “Sad Man’s Tongue” a thinly disguised tribute to the late, great Johnny Cash, and I mean that in the most positive way ever!

“River Queen” seems to be the most generic Volbeat-like song on the record. I don’t mean that in an entirely negative way, I do like the song upon listening to the whole of it and not just the snipplet available online. But, seeing as my only gripe with Volbeat’s previous albums was that the songs were a little too generic, and well, to be perfectly honest this track does sound like something we’ve all heard a couple of times before.

Speaking of downsides, and me being a language student, I just have to get this one thing off my chest: Since Michael Poulsen has such a nice voice and such strong vocals, it’s a damn shame that half of the time I’m not entirely sure what he’s saying. A bit of a crash course in English grammar would probably go a long way in helping the band penetrate the foreign market even further.. And that’s still not to say that I won’t have a sore throat after singing along to the songs.

Ah, but I’m rambling, the fact remains that the above mentioned songs and the remaining tracks make for one of the most solid, most well-produced and all-together satisfying albums I’ve heard in a long time.. And that’s not just the fan boy in me talking. This band is fully worthy of the praise and acceptance they’ve gotten for their past work, their live shows and this album in particular! Good work, boys, top marks from here!

Ses vi oppe foran d. 3. i Kolding? Det tror jeg nok vi gør!

New music in!

Wow, I've been listening to new music for the first time in forever! Here's what I got my hands on and a few early impressions:

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium

I wasn't much of a fan of the older stuff from this band, I do believe they really struck gold with their "Californication" album, though.

I originally only listened to their new double cd because I wanted to see how long it'd take them to slip in an obvious drug metaphor. I was surprised I had to wait till well into the second track. Another thing that surprised me is that the album did have a few really good songs. After having listened to it a few times, I really like the first single "Dani California" – Yes, it's incredibly simple and repetitive, but it's catchy and funky, too. The title track "Stadium Arcadium" is also really nice, and it probably surpasses "Californication" in terms of weirdness in lyrics. Along with the title track "Tell Me Baby" is a likely candidate for the second single off the album. It sounds kinda like a mix of old and new, mixing the old funky style with the newer melodic style ala "Californication."

As for the rest of the album, I'm not really impressed. It has a lot of similarities with the older Chili Peppers stuff.. That is bass-driven, funky songs with speedy, rap-like vocals. If that's your style, you might enjoy it. If  you like the newer stuff, chances are you'll enjoy a few songs as well. I'm left with the feeling, though, that a lot of the songs could've easily been stripped off the album, reducing it to a one disc release.

Pearl Jam – Pearl Jam

Haven't listened to Pearl Jam in forever. I was hugely into their "Ten" album but since then, I've only listened to a few single. Once again, I'll have to state that I simply love lead singer Eddie Vedder's voice – it's powerful yet emotional (and downright haunting on tracks like "Gone"). The first few tracks didn't really do much for me, but after listening to the entire album most of it kinda grew on me.As far as I can see, the album recieved great reviews from almost everybody and Rolling Stone magazine even called it the "best pearl Jam record in 10 years." So I'm sure most Pearl Jam fans will eat it right up, I'll stick to saying that I think it's a good album that's definitely worth a listen. Then again, maybe I should stop comparing every Pearl Jam release to "Ten", you just know they're bound never to strike gold like that again

Godsmack – IV

Well, this was weird! It's Godsmack.. And then again it's not. Okay, first off I'll have to admit that I used to like this band way back when they released the "Awake" album. The strange thing about this new album is that it seems like they haven't really evolved since back then.. And at the same time they really have. The agresssion and anger is still there, but seems to have taken a back seat in favor or longer acoustic/clean passages, moody vocals and guitar solos.

And then they went and pulled a Metallica. The 8th song on the album, "Voodoo Too", reuses a lot of elements from the song "Voodoo", just like Metallica did with "The Unforgiven" and "Unforgiven 2", how very original, guys! I still think that "Voodoo" is one of the sexiest songs in excistance, so to hear the drums echoed on the next track did make me smile, sadly it all crashes and burns in the long run.

Overall conclusion? Well, it's Godsmack – catchy and nice, yet lacking in so many ways. I can easily see why they're a huge commercial success, though. They remind me of a hard rock version of Nickelback.

Tool – 10,000 Days

The thing about Tool is that their music is so damn hard to define and categorize simply because if its complexity. It's not exactly metal nor is it hard rock, it does have a very progressive feel to it, but to call it progressive rock would probably not be fair either. It's like complex layers of sound surrounding you and drawing you in; I litterally lost 30 mins of my day beccause I started listening to a few songs and couldn't stop before I'd heard the rest.

That being said, this album is probably not for everybody. Most of the songs clock in at well over 7 minutes with two of them hitting the 11+ minute mark. They seem to grow and develope in seemingly random yet complex ways, so if you're into nicely structured, semi-repetitive stuff this isn't for you. Yet if you like alternative, progressive rock stuff, I really suggest you give it a try. This is without a doubt the best album I've heard in years!

The common cold (and “Some Kind Of Monster”) revisited

I guess I finally found out why they calli it the common cold.. At any rate, I'm down with the cold again, for the third time this year alone.. How messed up is that? I'm really starting to wonder what the hell I'm doing wrong. Maybe it's time to wind down a bit? Geeze.. And on top of that my router died, so I haven't been able to get online for the entire day yesterday.. Yay!

Aaanyways, I figured I needed to spoil myself some, so I went and got myself a copy of the Metallica documentary "Some Kind Of Monster." Not really sure why, I just felt like it.. I've watched some of it before but not really liked it all that much but still I keep hearing good stuff about it – so since it was in the bargain bin, I figured why the hell not?

For those unfamiliar with the movie, it's a documentary covering the making of Metallica's latest album "St. Anger". The movie is done by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky who were also behind Paradise Lost (which actually featured music by Metallica) and Brother's Keeper (both great documentaries) and is a ruthlessly honest insight into a lot of the bands personal problems, ego battles, inner demons and what not.

I'll have to admit I was pretty surprised watching this the second time around. I mean, considering how bad "St. Anger" turned out, it's amazing that the making of documentary turned out so well. The fact aside that I felt like strangling myself whenever drummer Lars Ulrich opened his mouth (Danes have that effect on people), I thoroughly enjoyed the insight that the movie offered into a lot of the harsh realities involved with being part of one of the world's biggest rock bands.

The movie chronicles two years in the life of Metallica, really getting under the skin of every member of the band. James' problems with alcoholism, Jason quitting the band, Lars going mental as always, the search for a new bass player. It's all in there and it's all honest and pretty much unedited.. Certainly a first in rock history for me.

So that's that, one good thing to happen that day.