Grön Konsert - Headliner act D.A.D.
Valbyparken, Copenhagen Denmark
July 18, 2004
By: Anders Sandvall
Guest contributor: Ulrika Henriksson
Live photos by: Anders Sandvall
Muskelsvinfonden
and Tuborg Beer (Denmark’s biggest beer producer) hosted this
years Grön Konsert (Green Concert). The tour was really short as
it only stopped in 7 places in Denmark this year and the last
show was held this Sunday in Copenhagen.
Grön Konsert always has some really popular artists in their
tour package (especially Danish ones) and this year it was Big
Fat Snake, Thomas Helmig, Tina Dickow, Jokeren, Nik & Jay and of
course this evenings high light act D.A.D. Grön Konsert has ran
their shows for about 22 years now and it’s the biggest
concert-tour in all of Northern Europe. About 40000 people had
come to Valby parken this evening to enjoy the bands, beer, and
the sun. The whole tour generated in 5,5 million DKr that goes
directly to Muskelsvinfonden (a foundation for people with
muscle diseases).
D.A.D.
took a break in the recording of their new album that they are
recording in Malmö Sweden, to do this mini tour around Denmark.
Earlier this year they also played at different festivals in
Denmark and at the Sweden Rock Festival.
This year the guys are celebrating 20 years as a band and
during those years they have only had one member change, today
they have a new drummer instead of the original one.
Before they went into the studio the guys had some vacation
and some time off to write new material. The Soft Dogs tour
ended in 2002 and I saw them play at Amager (also located in
Copenhagen) and after that it has been quiet from the guys until
now. It’s not the first time D.A.D.’s playing on Grön Konsert,
before this year they have played it in ‘95, ‘98, and in 2000.
The news for this year was that there were two stages. The
bands that played on the larger stage got 1hr 15min playtime. I
thought that maybe D.A.D. should get more time because they were
the headline act, but no, they got as much time as the rest of
the bands and that’s kind of strange.
Just as scheduled, the Danish heroes went on stage and they
kicked off the show with “Evil Twin” from the album EVERYTHING
GLOWS. It seemed like they really enjoyed themselves up on stage
and even though they played three songs from the coming album
the main focus was songs from EVERYTHING GLOWS. Sadly they only
did one song from the last album SOFT DOGS - they could have
played more from that brilliant album.
Some
of the songs they played included “Road Below Me”, “Everything
Glows”, “Something Good” and “Soft Dogs”. They also ran through
some classic tracks like “Bad Craziness”, “No Fuel Left for the
Pilgrims” and in “Riding With Sue” Stig took over the lead
vocals and Jesper did the chorus. Jesper didn’t do so much
talking between the songs but that probably was caused by the
lack of time. Jesper invited us all to sing along but with
thought of the enormous crowd I think that the sing a long was a
bit lame, I thought most of the people there have learnt the
lyrics by now.
As I wrote earlier they played some new songs that I think go
under the names “Camping In Scandinavia”, “It’s A Good Thing”
and “I Just Lost My Last Chance To Change”. They sounded very
promising and also harder and rougher than the songs on SOFT
DOGS. It sounded like they are more back to what they did on
RISKIN’ IT ALL and NO FUELS LEFT FOR THE PILGRIMS.
The
stage was pretty large and the band hadn’t so much gear on it so
they could move freely. And that is exactly what the Binzer
brothers did. Stig on the other hand wasn’t bad either and this
time he had clothes on that made him look like an airforce pilot
from the First World War. Those of you who’s followed D.A.D.
through the years knows that Stig changes approach for every
tour, when I saw them last time at Amager he was a Native
American. But just as last time on Amager, Stig only stood on
his side an played his two-stringed bass, the Binzer brothers
are nowadays the guys who gets the crowd going. Behind Laust,
the drummer, they had an old backdrop with the whole band name
and their logo – the cow-head who popped up in the fourth song
and burst out sparks and flames through it horns.
The ordinary play time was 50 minutes which they rounded off
with “Bad Craziness” and some sing a long. Before they went off
stage they did encores that started with “Sleeping My Day Away”
where the crowd sang the first verse before Jesper took over the
mic. In the middle of the song Jakob did a guitar solo and that
made the song extra long. After that all of the guys except for
Jakob and Jesper who did an acoustic version of their hit “Laugh
‘N’ ½”. After that Jakob told us that the acoustic red guitar he
played this song on he had with him during all the concerts but
now it was time to say goodbye to it and he threw it out in the
crowd.
Before the show was over they did “Marlboro Man” also that
one turned into an extra long version with Laust on a shorter
drum solo. After that the time was up and they left stage.
Through all the years I’ve seen D.A.D. live they have never
done a bad show, this one included. The sound was extremely good
despite the show being outdoors, the new songs also sounded
terrific. The only minor negative thing this sunny Sunday night
was the setlist that left out one of my favorite songs “It’s
After Dark”. That song is obligated to end a show with D.A.D.
but apparently not this time. It’s like Iron Maiden not playing
“Number of the Beast”! That was a big disappointment this
otherwise splendid evening.
The guys really showed 40000 people that they are something
to reckon with and after 20 years in the business D.A.D. show
that they still are one of Denmark’s finest.
