Red City Radio

support Perdition + Dungeon Days
author TL date 11/05/14 venue Underwerket, Copenhagen, DEN

It's clearing up over Copenhagen on a Sunday evening and on our way across town, LF is smirking forgivingly in response to the silly face I'm making in my effort to not sing Red City Radio songs all over the 4A bus. It's another show in less than a week where I get to see a great band from this year's Groezrock line-up in the super intimate setting of Underwerket, and if I'm honest, I have no plans to retain any sort of critical distance to punk rock's perhaps currently most singalongable band tonight - At least not until we find ourselves drinking our first beers with PP at the venue and our dear editor goes: "So Tim, why exactly are you not reviewing this instead of me? I'm pretty busy at the moment!". Rooted to the spot, I struggle to come up with a reasonable excuse, but it's futile because seeing as I fail to reply immediately, PP strategically retreats elsewhere in the venue leaving me to go "B-b-but.... Goddammit!".

All pictures courtesy of Lykke Nielsen

Dungeon Days

Dungeon Days is a relatively new trio in the Copenhagen punk rock circuit fronted by a good friend of the Rockfreaks crew and tonight they've been given the opportunity to support a band that they're probably just as stoked for as I we are. The band's style is curious, because despite relatively light-hearted song titles and humorous between-song banter from singer/guitarist Anders Grølsted, they seem to want to retain a harder, more gritty edge to their riffs than you'd expect from a full on, silly pop-punk band. To their credit they perform tightly and handle it quickly when Grølsted breaks a string, but so far in their career of - less than 20 shows if I'm not mistaken? - there are still problems to observe. Grølsted's gravelly singing too often sounds forced and somewhat out of tune, and generally the performance is oddly mellow in terms of energy considering the up-beat pace of songs named things like "Copenfornia", "Blood & Mix Tapes" and "IDDQD". The more romantic "Band Shirts" highlights the set with a touch of relateable sentimentality, but overall Dungeon Days still have ways to go with their singing and with loosening up a bit on stage. Until they do, some interesting bits of songwriting here and there aren't quite enough, and too much rests on Grølsted's ability to be funny between songs.

Perdition

Tonight's second support band has been brought along all the way from Texas in form of the quartet Perdition, whose 2013 album "Hispaniola" was unknown to me up until some quick listens while having dinner before the show. As it turns out though, they sound awesome tonight, playing a brand of punk-rock that wants to strike an emotive, nostalgic tone that sends my mind towards bands like The Ataris or even Captain, We're Sinking, only the guitars have more power and presence, verging on pseudo-metallic bits like those many fans enjoyed on mid-era Sum 41 songs. Tracks like "Cricket Dance" and "These Are The Droids We're Looking For" come through the speakers sounding as good as on record, but sadly they fall entirely upon the ears of new listeners, with the exception of RCR's Garret Dale who's rocking out in front of me. The rest of Underwerket look pleased, but not enough to move, which reflects that Perdition's performance is also a bit too introverted. The band's singer and bassist could well afford to spend less time with their eyes closed, leaving it to their lead guitarist to groove about a bit when time comes for him to flash his more striking parts. It's a solid but uneventful performance though, where songs like "I Don't Get Drunk, I Get Awesome" fortunately do enough talking to likely send people home towards the band's recorded material anyway.

7

Red City Radio

By the time our favourite Oklahoma quartet comes on, the generously populated Underwerket is in a good mood. While we're not at sold out capacity - likely due to some people nursing insurmountable hangovers from Saturday night - we're close enough and the beer has been flowing nicely as well, so it's really no surprise that the front of the room opens up and that singalongs are heard immediately as the band gets things going by focusing mostly on newer songs. "Show Me On The Doll Where The Music Touched You", "Two Notes Shy Of An Octave" and "Joy Comes With The Morning" are aired in the band's traditional, extroverted fashion, to the response of benign moshing and hooks shouted back at the band.

Beers are swung towards the ceiling in celebratory mood as the night proceeds and the set gradually makes room for more songs from debut album "The Dangers Of Standing Still". New man Sean Donovan from Smoke Or Fire looks a bit casual to the right without the beard he's been seen rocking for a while, but if there's any dropoff in stokedness after the band's much larger show at Groezrock last week then it's hard to notice because people are too busy having a blast and singing along to the likes of "Two Is For Flinching", "Spinning In Circles Is A Gateway Drug" and of course "50th And Western". It's a show that doesn't lend itself to superfluous analysis: The band is good, the songs are better, the audience knows the words and the connection is hence immediate and consistent the way you wish it was at all shows, and as the show moves to end, a Rockfreaks writer goes crowdsurfing. With all that considered, how much more can you really want from a Sunday night in a basement in Valby?

Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.