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support Power Trip + Blkout
author PP date 21/11/13 venue Templet, Lyngby, DEN

It's Thursday night and a few of us have taken the trip up to northern Copenhagen to go greet Bane once more. Not too many others are present at Templet tonight, but Bane have always been known as a band that brings a killer show regardless of how close to capacity the venue might be in reality. That's partially why they are so respected and revered within the hardcore scene - and had this show been in Copenhagen, there's no doubt in my mind the venue would've been much more packed than it was for tonight.

Blkout

Opening the show tonight we have Blkout all the way from Australia. This country is renowned for its solid heavy music scene, so hopes are high for this hardcore bunch to deliver an earthshaking set for the next 30 minutes or so. Unfortunately, their vocals are way too low in the mix to be heard properly, sitting far beneath the guitars and bass leaving their impact questionable at best. Moreover, the band is bathing in red light which makes for not much of a light show, so despite playing a set of decent hardcore with good variation when it comes to rhythm, groove, et cetera, they would need to rescue their rating with movement instead. That's not happening either, because other than their vocalist casually jumping around the stage, the band are standing more or less still for the duration of their set. It says something that the most memorable part of their set was their vocalist dedicating the last song for kangaroos in Australia, or some shit like that.

Power Trip

Power Trip

Power Trip are from Texas, but they could just as well be from the Bay Area if you were to judge them solely based on their sound. They play vicious crossover thrash that breaks out into two-step hardcore moments; a vocalist who yells into the mic like Slayer's Tom Araya on one moment and barks like a hardcore vocalist the next one. It's an interesting blend of genres that results into two karate moshers stomping and looking idiotic at the front as usual, but even more so when they appear confused over the piercing thrash metal solos that make it impossible to flail your limbs around like a tool. Their response? Crash around purposefully to some of the people at the side. So while most of the set is spent laughing inside at these people, the band on stage play their set without much commotion, spare for a heartfelt request for some weed and beer, and a rant about how much they respect straight edge kids at the same time because they're the ones driving them from show to show. Decent, but way too few people and too little movement for this to matter in the grand scheme of things.

Bane

Bane

For Bane it's immediately a different story from the opening track "Ante Up". Not only are their melodies brilliantly embedded within their pouncing hardcore style to make for fantastic, even genre-defining songs, but the band itself simply explodes on stage into movement, crashing around with the kind of energy that convinces even the most skeptical of hardcore fans to move along. "It's an oldie, you gotta move with us", Bane's vocalist screams, before heading into more older material from "Give Blood" and "It All Comes Down To This" era, highlighting a set that consists of some of the best Bane material from across their entire discography, with even material from 1996 making an appearance tonight. Apparently, they've played some shows with no movement from the crowd's side this tour, but luckily the Danish fans respond and the crowd breaks away into a circle pit followed by a two pit session. "See, this is what we're out here for", he says after the song, with the band channelling even more energy from the crowd to display an arsenal of scissor jumps, spinning jumps, and hardcore dancing on stage. The energy is simply awesome, the band are visibly passionate on stage, and have no trouble sharing the mic with the front when final song "Swan Song" arrives where the crowd goes absolutely ballistic leaping towards the mic to participate. Hardcore bands take note: this is how to put on a show regardless of how few people are present at the venue.

Photos by: Julie Weitmann Decome