Billy Talent

support Pinboys
author TL date 02/03/07 venue Pumpehuset, Copenhagen, DEN

The most prosperous spring ever in terms of getting cool bands to play in Denmark features quite a few shows taking place at Pumpehuset, which is much to my satisfaction, seeing as it really is an extremely cool venue. Hence I was delighted to return to it for Billy Talents first ever show on these shores, and expectations were substantial, seeing as the band has more or less broken through to the mainstream with their latest album "II". As usual, the arrival of a band that can be even remotely tied to 'the scene' had guaranteed quite the crowd of people with tight pants and multi-coloured hairdo's, and in case the tickets weren't sold out I hope it came damn close, because having anything to do with the wardrobe section of the rather small lobby was next to impossible with the large amount of people crammed in there before the show started.

Pinboys

The duty of warming the crowd up had been given to the Danish pop-punk upstarts Pinboys, a band that despite what the name would suggest have a female member on, you guessed it, vocals. Apart from that fact however, there's not much else to characterize the bands music and make it stand out from the vast gray mass that is generic pop-punk of today. Simple melodies and semi-catchy choruses delivered on fast paced beats, and pretty much every trick you'd expect from a band from this genre is included in the package but when that's been said that's also pretty much all there is. Both in general and tonight, Pinboys seem like a band that's so occupied with being pretty much the only band in Denmark that plays pop-punk, that they forget everything about ever being anything more than just a pop-punk band. Their display is tight and energetic but it just doesn't seem to ever cross the gap between the band and the audience, and as such the performance mirrors the band as a whole in the sense that something is needed to give the music an identity of its own before it will ever receive any grades above average.

5

Billy Talent

One of the more annoying parts about gigs is, that usually you could start and end a civil war in a small South American country in the time that passes between the moment the support band goes off the stage, and the moment the headliners enter. Thus Billy Talent received their first credit from me when they left barely enough time to chat a bit with your friends and then go to the bathroom and come back, before taking the stage in advance of any noteworthy impatience from the crowd. Like on a mission, the guys entered the stage and started systematically living up to every expectation you might have had for their band. The band launched into an energetic performance of "Devil In A Midnight Mass" and from then on didn't slow the pace or miss a beat. "Red Flag", "Where Is The Line", "In The Fall", "The Suffering" and "Worker Bees" were all there representing the new album, and the old one wasn't forgotten about either, as the band also treated us to classics like "How It Goes" and "The Ex".

Apart from the somewhat comical attempt at convincing the crowd that the band honestly thought girls in Denmark are the prettiest in the world, and the almost too predictable "fuck you George Bush"-dedication of the song "Covered In Cowardice" the music was pretty much left to speak for itself, which was cool since it's more than capable of doing so. After having kept the crowd on their toes for a period of time, the band closed the main set with "Try Honestly" to the sight of a tsunami of crowdsurfers. After a performance as convincing as this, it was even less of a surprise than usually, that the band was clapped back on stage to play "Pens And Needles" as commanded by the crowd. Quite the treat seeing as they hardly ever play that song live. On an ending note, before finally leaving, frontman Benjamin Kowalewicz revealed that the great response from the crowd had encouraged the band in plans they had of coming back this summer, effectively raising our hopes of maybe seeing the at this years Roskilde Festival, as rumoured a few months ago. Pretty much the icing on top of the cake that was this nights display. A band that came, saw and lived up to every single expectation anyone could fairly have had for them. Money well spent.

8

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