I WANT TO SEE YOU!

REVIEW Sunday I fought my way home through the icy cold December night with a nagging feeling of slight disappointed with what I'd just witnessed. Had I not seen Death in June just last year at Pumpehuset, this review might have been entirely different...

Taking the B-train, tuna sandwich in hand, from Hovedbanegården I arrived at Forbrændingen around 9PM, got myself a beer and took my place in the audience. After a disastrously bad support show from Parzival (DK/RU) who clearly have made it their mission to score the next Lord of the Rings type flick, Death in June entered the stage.

The concert took its cues from last time around by starting off with a very high level of energy (Douglas Pearce in his notorious mask), creating a noise spectrum of spoken bits from the album Nada!, tribal rhythms and singing, but after just a few songs in this style the masks came off and the band (again, similar to their gig of last year) almost immediately started taking song requests from the audience throughout all the rest of the show. This could seem like a positive thing, I know I felt spoiled last time when they did this, but unfortunately it meant two things Sunday:

1. If you went to their show last year you got an almost identical setlist. Obviously they played the song most people called for i.e. "the hits". 
2. The concert lost the element of surprise and after the first 10 minutes it actually didn't feel like a "show" as in the band having put in an effort to take the audience on a journey from A to B. In my opinion a show needs quirkiness and spectacle, but all we got was a handful of personal anecdotes from Pearce.

"This one is dedicated to my mother who died in june this year. So we finally had a death in june!"
- Douglas Pearce on "The Peaceful Snow"

You!

My own state of mind (sleepy on a Sunday, going to a concert alone) could surely have affected my experience of the night, but I gotta say, and I wanted this to be part of my review: It seemed like there was a drowsy feel to the audience overall. I mean, I wasn't ecstatic, but I enjoyed myself and smiled standing there in my own little bubble (only burst once when drunk-dancing-lady, the only dancing person in the crowd(!), tapped me on the shoulder to let me know she thought I looked like an angel ♥).

Most people in the audience lacked participation in the show. The problem was most apparent when the band left the stage and only sporadic applause called a noticeably aggrieved Douglas Pearce back on stage halfheartedly joking: "You know, this might be the last time you get to see us!"

Audience love spotted. As well as the Death in June mask peeking from the darkness.

Although it certainly is a joke at this point - the band has made it a thing to keep labeling their tours as their final live appearances, so maybe it makes you desperately crave the band less when they play - but personally I just thought it was very rude for so many to get up and leave as soon as (or actually before) the band had left the stage. I doubt that all these people did so because of my former critique points. Maybe they needed to catch a train? - Either way it's just bad concert manners!

Not clapping after a concert should mean you were very unhappy with what you've just experienced and I certainly didn't feel like that even though I could have wished for more.

All in all I'm glad I went to see Death in June this time around as well. Neofolk is like nectar for an icy winter heart and the band has an impressive number of songs so very spot on considering the technical simplicity of the genre. The band being so old cuts them a lot of slack when it comes to their lack of innovation, but I'm still surprised playing like that doesn't bore them in the long run - I know I would get sick of the repetition. On a different note I'm really glad I got to see Forbrændingen, my first show ever at this venue.

My last thumb up goes to me being able to enter the concert with the ticket on my iPad screen only. Ladies and gentlemen, we're officially living in the new world! 

Death in June live @ Forbrændingen 02/12-12

REVIEW: ICEAGE (DK), LOWER (DK) & THE MEN (US).

Such a great show last night! I'm really glad I finally got to see them live. I feel like I need to see them again, though, those punk shows end just as you feel like they're really getting started because so many tracks fly by in 10 minutes. I still can't believe how young they are. Their lead singer is a true babe in that slightly pornographic, childish, wrecked way. I can only imagine what a few years will do to that.

Even though Iceage definitely were my favourite part, the other bands, Danish Lower and The Men from the US were pretty great as well. My overall impression of the entire lineup that night was much better than what I expected!
Lower were pretty straight forward punk (not like most hardcore punk bands I'm used to seeing at Ungdomshuset etc.) with low vocals (or maybe the mic was just turned down too much..) and decent tunes of varying quality. And a bass player that looked like Sheldon Cooper from "The Big Bang Theory"!
The Men were a totally schizophrenic band that switched between punk, Sonic Youth-ish guitars, hard rock and sometimes even, oh yes, dadrock! Did all things pretty good, but with little soul/original sound in my opinion + some tracks left me a little confused as I only liked parts of them.

The moshpit kinda wrecked my back with a nasty blue/red mark (and I was only in the pit for like two songs!). Even though I had fun, people were a bit too violent for my taste. I feel like moshing should always contain some form of dance moves and not just punching random people really hard, but oh well - a lot of people (read: lads) will probably disagree with me on this!

The venue is also something I want to comment on: K18 seemed surprisingly well-fitted for a punk gig when it came to mood and size. It also created what I would describe as a kinda odd mix of hipsters and punks which was pretty cool, I guess. Everyone seemed to be in pretty good spirits. I wish people would've danced more, though! Besides a lot of moshing during Iceage, most people weren't even wiggling on the spot which made me feel a little silly standing there rocking my butt from side to side constantly, heh (Hey, if you can't do that at a show, then where?). I also liked the fact that I could get a beer for 20 kr. for a good part of the night ('till they ran out of their stock of christmas beer!). That's not all that bad for the meatpacking district. Sound-wise, I'm not sure the place was all that good, but it might just be due to how loud every band played. But then again, a punk band should always be able to play their tunes really loud. It's kinda a part of the energy.

Woohoo, I can't seem to get enough punk lately. So ready for next gig!

Iceage (DK), Lower (DK), The Men (US) @ K18,  25/01-12