DANZIG

If you haven't heard Danzig before… which planet do you live on?

… Well, a short briefing:
Glen Danzig was the lead singer of The Misfits, a legendary punk rock band that had their prime in the early 80s. He left the band and started the band Samhain that later on became Danzig. They released their first self-titled classic album in 1988.

Many musicians and people in the music business claim that Glen is a megalomaniac and is hard to work with. If you consider the fact that he lately changes musicians like underwear it just might be the fact.

Danzig's music is classic heavy rock with a horror feeling. Very sinister stuff with lyrics that mainly deal with sex, religion and Satan. Pretty corny stuff actually… but it's pretty charming in a way. Whether you should take Glen's image seriously or not is hard to decide. His vocal qualities have given him the alias Evil Elvis. To me he has always been Jim Morrison's evil twin.

THE SHOW:

So why did I go to the show? The answer is simple: I wanted to see the man, the myth, the legend… and experience a hell of a show. Another reason is that this was Danzig's first performance in Sweden and the only show he had planned here on this tour.

It all started very bad. I arrived in Malmö with my fellow band-mate from Optimus Crime Fredrik to experience the longest line ever. Pilgrims from all over Sweden were here! The line moved very slowly so we went for a brew in order to cheer up a little. When returning we realized that the line was even longer now. The show was sold out and people without tickets were forced to leave. We had to join the line in order to get to see the man. When we finally got in, the show was delayed. We were told that the bands (?) should've arrived at 12 but came 6 o'clock! The club was crammed with people. We waited for the supporting act Marduk (a Swedish black-metal band)… finally the guys entered the stage and I caught site of Glen Danzig with his fake-nail rubber gloves!!! What the hell, only one band for 30 bucks! People were exited anyway and started to scream like hell.

The band started off with 2 or 3 songs from the newly released album “I Luciferi”. Not bad at all! But not until the opening riff to “A Twist of Cain” from the first album could be heard the crowd went nuts. During the night the band played some classic songs such as “Her black Wings” and their greatest hit “Mother”. I wouldn't have expected a cover but Danzig played the Diamond Head song “Am I Evil?” that Metallica recorded early in their career. During the evening the band focused on new material rather than on classic stuff. Good or bad? Hard to say but I guess it's tiring to play the same songs the tenth year in a row. Danzig didn't play two songs I would've liked to hear this evening: “Dirty Black Summer” and “Devil's Plaything”.

How was it then?
Not that lousy, but a big disappointment anyway. Glen didn't sing that well. In the first couple of songs he sang really bad. Maybe because he handled the mic in a very unprofessional way. Hallo, Glen! You have to sing into the mic not in the air 3 feet from it! When he finally realized how a microphone works it was a little better. But is he a great singer? I can't say… maybe a bad day? He didn't sing convincing enough, swallowed the endings of lines, was grasping for air too much, couldn't sing long notes… the other guys then? Well first of all the guitarist and the bass man looked like belonging in Nine Inch Nails… guess it's their haircuts. This is a minor detail so let's describe the musical qualities: the guitar sound was shitty and I didn't get hold of some of the riffs… and these solos! A painful wah-wah experience without finesse performed in a happy-go-lucky way. Of all solos only one was good. The sound of the bass was the worst part this evening… the bass killed the rest! The low tones were to low and too loud! Do they have a lousy sound engineer, or what? The best musician this evening was the drummer John Kelly (Typeonegative, a member of the band or a session drummer?). He gave more groove to the songs than I'm used to with for example Chuck Biscuits (original member of Danzig). He knew how to handle the drum kit.

All in all, a pretty dull experience. They had some cool stage props: the drum kit was guarded by fallen angels and a row of spears… they couldn´t bring the strippers to Sweden because it is prohibited but I guess that wouldn´t help the show much. The question is: does Glen's beginning baldness take a musical expression? Is he getting tired? Does he need the strippers to get going, or what? He wasn't that evil this evening and seemed a very nice guy. The only talking he made between the songs was “thanks” and “thank you” and the introduction of “Mr. John Kelly”.

There were some good aspects to this show but the bad parts overshadowed them. I'm sorry but Glen and the rest (besides John) haven't done their homework and I have to give them detention!

5 out of 10 points

P.S. Some info from Danzig´s site (original misspellings) + my comments:

”Johnny will be performing on all of the Euro/Scandinavian/UK Shows and any others added as there is talk of a Surprise New Years Show and some Japanese Dates as well.”

– Johnny surely kicks ass!

”Unfortunatly Marduk will not be on the Danzig tour as they were denied entrance by the INS. Although we were looking forward to having Marduk on the bill, we have found an excellent substitute. We are pleased to annouce PRONG will be taking their place!!! See you on the road!!”

– This info is from May… how come we didn´t see PRONG… one of the first bands I listened to? (”Prove You Wrong” was the 2nd album I ever bought)