Well, the live silly season is now on with a vengeance and it’s becoming even more difficult to choose who to see and who not to see. The season goes on to Christmas when things go rather quiet for about a month after which it all begins to explode again… Shakenstir is an eclectic music site which goes which way the real quality blows, and here’s just three examples from the last week.

Volbeat

Manchester Academy 2, 28 October 2011.

The band’s bands latest album BEYOND HELL/ABOVE HEAVEN was one of my favourite heavy rock records of 2010. The band has been described as ‘Rockabilly Metallers’ but this album is firmly down the heavy rock road with a huge dollop of melody, fine lyrics, and performances/sound that remind me of Metallica, especially in the lead vocals. The venue for this event was the Manchester Academy 2, the second largest of the university’s gaggle of excellent venue, and absolutely packed for the show.

The nature of the audience was interesting in that ages started at early twenties and then travelled upwards. So a quite mature audience perhaps due to the band’s criminal absence from the airwaves… It’s something I cannot understand given the very accessible, melody-rich nature of the band’s music. Perhaps it’s part of this dreadful tidal wave of movement towards dance-friendly acts that now tends to dominate the BBC and mainstream radio. Whatever the reason audience, underlined by the immense quality of the performance I was about to witness.

And what a performance! An extended instrumental introduction from a darkened stage raised the capacity crowd excitement levels to fever pitch, and when the band finally appeared under a blaze of lights the audience roar nearly lifted the roof. ‘The Human Instrument’ and ‘Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood’ from earlier albums got the show of to a storming start, and by the briliant new track ‘Heaven Nor Hell’ the band was at max operating temperature. Several things really impressed me with the performance including the band members continual communication with the crowd which resulted in the level of audience connection that many bands could only dream about… Poulsen’s vocals were perfect as he trawled through all the emotions, and as a lead-man I’ve seen few better. Instrumentally, the band is up there with the very best and on this showing was one of the tightest I have ever seen.

But a band is nothing without great songs and on the night they just kept coming from a set list that including tracks from all the band’s four albums. For 1 hour and forty minutes the band thrilled and when the inevitable encore arrived it was one of the longest I can remember in front of an adoring audience who just would not let their heroes off the stage.

For me, this one of the finest performances I have ever seen from a rock band and when they return to these shores I will be seeing them again. One word: Brilliant!

Set-List: The Human Instrument, Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood, Heaven Nor Hell, A Moment Forever/Hallelujah Goat, The Mirror And The Ripper, Mary Anne’s Place, Sad Man’s Tongue, A New Day, Radio Girl, The Graden’s Tale, Rebel Monster, Angelfuck, Still Counting. ENCORE: Warrior’s Call, Fallen, 16 Dollars, I Only Want To Be With You, Pool Of Booze, BOA.

Volbeat Biography

Volbeat is a Danish rock band formed in Copenhagen. They play a fusion of rock and roll, heavy metal, punk and rockabilly. They are inspired by classic rock and roll artists such as Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, as well as more contemporary hard rock, punk rock and metal bands, such as AC/DC, Social Distortion, The Misfits, Napalm Death and Metallica. Their line-up consists of vocalist and guitarist Michael Poulsen, guitarist Thomas Bredahl, bassist Anders Kjølholm and drummer Jon Larsen. The band is signed to Dutch label Mascot Records and has released four studio albums and one DVD. All of their studio albums were certified gold in Denmark. Their second album Rock the Rebel/Metal the Devil received platinum status, and their latest release Beyond Hell/Above Heaven was subject to widespread international critical acclaim, receiving double platinum in Denmark, platinum in Finland and gold in Sweden, Germany and Austria.