What a gig. The social networking sites warned that London
was in for a brilliant night, and they were right. Volbeat were bloody awesome.
They manage to be a heavy rock/metal band but still have an element of fun in
their music that makes you smile. So
glad I finally got to see them after the last one got cancelled due to illness
a couple of years or so back.
The support acts were pretty decent. I missed the first one
(queue to get in and merch stall took care of that) but the second band, Iced
Earth were quite impressive. It didn’t feel like watching a new band, and
having since looked them up turns out I was right. Their debut album is the
same age as me, so they have been around a fair while. Their experience
definitely showed and they put on a really good performance. The singer impressed me the most going from a
James Hetfield type growl to a Bruce Dickinson-esque howl with ease. He also
played the frontman role well, really getting the crowd going. Definitely had
the crowd pumped up for the headliner.
As for Volbeat, what can I say? I’m not sure who enjoyed it
more, the crowd or them. They came onto the stage to a huge roar from the crowd
after an introduction by Motorhead’s ‘Born to Raise Hell’ and went straight
into ‘Hallelujah Goat’, ‘Guitar Gangsters and Cadillac Blood’ and ‘Radio Girl’
(one of my personal favourites). By then they had really got into their stride
and when an acoustic guitar was bought onto the stage for singer Michael
Poulsen, everyone had a pretty good idea what was coming up.
It was of course the old crowd favourite ‘Sad Man’s Tongue’
preceded by Johnny Cash’s legendary ‘Ring of Fire’ which had the whole place
singing as one. “You like a bit of Johnny Cash then?” Poulsen replied. They
then ripped into ‘Sad Man’s Tongue’ with the crowd in full voice. It’s a good
song anyway, but live with full crowd participation it’s even better. Next was
my favourite song from their new album ‘Lola Montez’. Judging by the crowd’s
reaction I’m not the only one. I can’t vouch for previous gigs, but Poulsen
seemed genuinely surprised when he sang the opening line and the crowd sung the
first few lines back to him. After stopping to take it in, they carried on, and
the song is just as good live as it sounds like it would be. Definitely an
instant Volbeat classic.
They followed that up with ‘Heaven nor Hell’ and the
impressive ’16 Dollars’, which sounds even better live than the studio version.
One of the surprises of the night was the inclusion of the cover of the Young
the Giant song ‘My Body’. I love the original and when I heard Volbeat’s
version a few months back I was an instant fan of that too. It was great to
hear it live as it really is a quality song.
They finished their set with a snippet of ‘Breaking the Law’
by Judas Priest, with Pete the drum technician on drums (very talented crew
they have given the jam they did on sound check) before ending with the classic
‘Still Counting’, another song that had the whole place singing along.
They walked back on stage and played an encore of ‘Doc
Holiday’, the fantastic ‘I Only Want to Be with You’ and ‘Pool of Booze, Booze,
Booza’ (after inviting some girls to join them on stage). I am so glad they
played ‘I Only Want to be with You’ as it is one of my favourite Volbeat songs.
When I first heard it, I thought a metal version of Dusty Springfield couldn’t
work but it so does.
Overall it was a top quality night; my ears are still
ringing (although seeing Alter Bridge the night before might have something to
do with it also). The band are fantastic and Paulsen is great front man, even
managing to pull off a stage dive. They played all crowd favourites, all except
maybe ‘The Garden’s Tale’, but you can’t have everything. The band looked like
they enjoyed, but judging by the crowd’s reaction, I think they enjoyed it
more.
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