Rockfreaks.net

support The Courettes + Viva Vertigo
author SBTS date 26/04/24 venue Store VEGA, Copenhagen, DEN

Psyched Up Janis were one of the biggest rock bands in Scandinavia in the ‘90s, with their loud, distorted guitar sound, pronounced bass, and characteristic lyrics creating a strong identity for them during the grunge era. And here, in the main hall of the iconic VEGA in Copenhagen, the trio are intent on proving to a sold out crowd that it is not always necessary to reinvent your sound and follow new directions in order to remain popular. On the contrary, the three musicians remain close to their roots even now, on this 30th anniversary tour of which tonight’s concert is part.

Viva Vertigo

The first band to enter the stage is Viva Vertigo, playing classic garage rock with a cool attitude in front of a still half empty venue early this Friday evening. The show kicks off in a high gear with the tempo driven “Viva Viva (Edie Sedgwick)” from 2021’s “Viva Viva” album, which shows exactly why this outfit could be a perfect match for the evening’s headliners. Part of the crowd upfront starts moving steadily as the slower and more melodic title track from the band’s latest outing “White Light Flash of Love” takes over. It, too, seems to be received with approval by the crowd – but from this point on, it feels as though there is a downshift of the gear, with “Wall of Black Tears” failing to convince the audience to remain engaged when the material slows down and becomes moodier. Instead, the queue for beer at the bars grows longer, a tendency that is fortunately, albeit belatedly turned upside down by the final track “All vi til månen”, which sees the band joined by Magtens Korridorer’s frontman Johan Olsen for the lyrics sung in Danish. It is a fantastic way to end the show, but in honesty, it also feels like the time has come for someone else to take over from a band that has done a fine job, but has found it difficult to impress the crowd.

The Courettes

The Brazilian/Danish band The Courettes are next to take the stage with their nostalgic, ‘60s inspired rock’n’roll attitude and high energy. The tempo is high from the get-go, with the retro drum beat and lead vocals of Flávia Couri in “The Boy I Love” off the duo’s 2015 outing “Here Are the Courettes” instantly capturing the audience’s imagination. Her enthusiasm and positive vibes echo the cries of past rock icons. People are dancing and smiling as all the tried and tested show tricks are deployed, with Couri yelling things like “When I say four, then you say dynamite!” and drummer Martin Couri blowing water into the air behind his kit. It is true that these kinds of antics have been seen countless times before, here they nonetheless work to perfection and leave the audience captivated. Probably a large part of the reason for this is the duo’s undeniable chemistry on stage, while standout tracks like “Boom! Dynamite!" from 2018’s “We Are the Courettes” and their latest single “Shake!” encapsulate the raw, unfiltered essence of their sound. There are parts of the concert that admittedly grow a little monotonous, but overall, The Courettes deliver a visceral performance that proves why they are considered by some to be modern day pioneers of gritty retro rock’n’roll.

Psyched Up Janis

As fans of Psyched Up Janis might know, in their smash hit with the same title, vocalist Sune Wagner sings the famous line: “I died in my teens”. But tonight, middle aged women and men are in fact re-living their teens over the course of a couple of hours; we are drawn back to the ‘90s on this 30th anniversary tour, and as a teaser, it turns out to be a hell of a night for everybody. There are absolutely no signs to show that these grunge icons issued their début EP in 1994 - quite the contrary!

“Dying Flame” from the band’s 1997 album “Beats Me” produces a slow start to the performance, which is maybe a good choice so that everyone can get settled in for the ride. But, in my opinion, where the concert really kicks off is during the subsequent tracks “Tanked and Gone” and “Modest Us”, both of which are faster cuts and showcase the knifelike sharpness of Wagner’s vocals – including his yelled parts, which many of his contemporaries are no longer able to deliver – and the noisy guitar riffs for which this trio is renowned. Jacob Jørgensen’s deep, driving bass lines and Jesper ‘Yebo’ Reginal’s similarly insistent drumming are likewise played to perfection, something that becomes even more evident in the heavier standout piece “Now It’s Summer”. Wagner tells us that tonight, “All tracks are old tracks,” and that as such, he has ”a hard time saying ‘Here’s an old track’” even before the classic “Chandelier” off 1994’s “Swell” is played. At this point, no one is standing still.

Halfway through the concert, Psyched up Janis embark upon a quest to play four songs in a row, none of which reside on any of their full-length albums, which seems to take many in the crowd by surprise. “Everything’s a Blast”, “Girls” and “Shoot the Breeze” are all found on various EPs from the band’s repertoire, while the rarity that is “Secret Admirer”, taken from the newly released vinyl reissue for their 1993 demo “Operation Clean Sweep”, has never been played live before this tour. The audience is understandably going wild, with plenty of people even encouraged to try their luck at crowd surfing.

The 22-track setlist mostly covers songs from Psyched Up Janis’ first two albums, rooting us firmly in the mid ‘90s for the duration of the concert, but the band nonetheless succeeds in revitalizing the material with an updated, rawer and more noisy sound of the 2020s. The show ends with the iconic “I Died in My Teens” in the end of an encore, which sees people practically queuing up to crowd surf through the venue, placing an excellent cherry on top of a performance that that underscores the band’s legendary status and leaves us all wanting for more.

Setlist:

• 1. Dying Flame
• 2. Tanked and Gone
• 3. Modest Us
• 4. New 5
• 5. Where the Lights Won’t Shine
• 6. Now It’s Summer
• 7. Chandelier
• 8. Picking Stars
• 9. Everything’s a Blast
• 10. Girls
• 11. Secret Admirer
• 12. Hopefully
• 13. Shoot the Breeze
• 14. Strange Pier
• 15. Subsonic Why
• 16. The Stars Are Out
• 17. Vanity
• 18. Waiting to Grab
• 19. Shudder

– Encore –

• 20. Special One
• 21. Evil Beauty
• 22. I Died in My Teens