Reel Big Fish

support Ramjet
author PP date 31/08/04 venue Loppen, Copenhagen, DEN

The legendary Christiania, the 'free city' of Copenhagen. We stepped into Christiania through the gates and Loppen was pretty much there. I had never been at Loppen before so I wasn't sure what to expect. Well, it was Reel Big Fish, so I expected a stage at least as big as the one in Lille Vega. To my amazement, Loppen was just a relatively small bar on the second floor of a building. The stage was about 15 cm higher from the normal floor, and the size of the stage was just big enough to fit all of the band members on it. It was a very intimate stage - we stood within half a metre from the band!

Reel Big Fish

Whenever you've got a concert in a bar, you've gotta have beers. So, Ramjet started warming up the crowd. They played Ska as well, but very generic ska. It wasn't mindblasting or stunning. To quote Fat Mike from NOFX: "They were OK, not bad, but pretty good, they played the songs I knew they would." So, five beers and one Ramjet later Reel Big Fish entered the stage. First came the drummer who started doing the beat of 'Dateless Losers'. Then, as the instruments come into the song, the rest of the band arrived and started playing. It was the perfect way of starting a concert! The crowd, about 500 people packed into a bar that could probably hold about 250 people, was jumping around and dancing to the ska crazy. Already during the first song I was sweating more than ever. The crowd was truly, truly enjoying the song.

The songs that followed were nearly as good, so it kept the crowd warm and singing along, headbanging and moshing in the little space. People managed even to bodysurf even though they hit the roof while doing it! So, Reel Big Fish were really doing a great job. The whole crowd was in an ecstacy feeling (Not literally, even though we were at Christiania [note: No hard drugs are allowed in Christiania]). They played some songs from each of their four albums, some really old ones and some newer ones. But overall they mixed all their songs really well together.

So once we got the classics like Rock 'N' Roll Is Bitchin', Good Thing and Where Have You Been over, we were surprised by a cover of an old A-HA song called "Take On Me". A ska version of it! That really lit up the crowd again. And once we got to the end they had saved their arguably best song last, namely 'Beer'. Although personally I liked their first song most!

After the concert, as soon as the security personel looked away - the crowd jumped to the stage to snatch the setlists. Unfortunately we weren't quick enough to get a first-hand copy but we managed to get hold of most of the songs played. As most of the crowd had exited the place, I stayed with Josh at the bar and to my surprise their trumpet player, Tyler Jones, came out to chill with the fans. I got to talk to him and asked a little bit about how was it to play on such a small stage, when they're used to the huge stages due to their popularity in the States. He told me that it was actually the warmup band that introduced them to Denmark, which is why they came to play here. According to him tonight's crowd was way better than for example Reading Festival's crowd on the main stage, even though we only had around 300 people here. I guess the band also likes the intimation of a stage built in with the crowd! There's only one thing that counts as a minus for the band. Dan was pretty arrogant in my opinion, not down to earth like some other bands. While we were talking and asking questions from him, he kept having this thing of...We're Reel Big Fish and we're BIG, damn people just come to see us because we are Reel Big Fish. I didn't really like that =/.

Overall, this concert was even better than Muse, although I've probably never sweat as much as I did during Reel Big Fish. But, great music and great live performance made the concert memorable. Go see them if you have a chance!

10

Setlist:

  • 1. Dateless Losers
  • 2. She's Famous Now
  • 3. All I Want Is More
  • 4. Ban The Tube Top
  • 5. You Don't Know
  • 6. Rock 'N' Roll Is Bitchin'
  • 7. The Set Up (You Need This)
  • 8. Join The Club
  • 9. Good Thing
  • 10. Suckers
  • 11. Everything Sucks
  • 12. Boss DJ
  • 13. Where Have You Been
  • 14. Take On Me (A-HA cover)
  • 15. --unknown title--
  • 16. Beer

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