Gig Reviews
VOLA
Store VEGA, Copenhagen, DEN - 30/11
Album Reviews
Crazy Town
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support Cryosphere + Walking Rumor
author PP
date 25/07/19
venue Rust, Copenhagen, DEN
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Two decades ago, when Crazy Town was riding the success of their hit single "Butterfly", they played arena-sized venues across the world. Tonight, they are headlining Rust, a small club venue that has a max capacity of 679 people on both floors, but probably closer to 150 or less in the basement where this concert is taking place. Since rap-metal has fallen out of fashion in such a spectacular manner, we enter with low expectations, which end up getting slain to our surprise.
Walking Rumor
Tonight's opening act has traveled here all the way from Odense and immediately set the scene by playing unashamed nu-metal like it's 2001 all over again. They have two vocalists who trade rap verses against post-hardcore style clean segments, whilst the rest of the band dabble in chord-based nu-metal with the occasional metalcore riffs for good measure. Unfortunately, they are playing in front of an empty venue at this point, so their calls for getting people to come closer fall on non-existent ears, but at least the band delivers a surprisingly enjoyable performance. There's a little bit of Limp Bizkit here, a little bit of Linkin Park (think the first album) there, and the band members are doing their best to move around the scene as much as possible. Yes, their soundscape is dated but they are not pretentious about it and play with the kind of earnest attitude that deserves at least an audience of some size, which just isn't happening at this point. As a result, decent songs like "Breaking Point" (Ed note: at least that's what I think the song was called?) fall a little flat without more than a handful of people watching.
Cryosphere
Next up, Cryosphere from Roskilde. Quite a few more people have made their way through the doors for this one, so at least they have an audience to work with. They play a standard fare type of metalcore that's just about as anonymous and nothing saying as the genre comes at its most mediocre. The growls: sub-standard and monotonous throughout. The cleans by their female vocalist? Slightly better, though still at the "needs improvement" department. At least she delivers her parts with an attitude and a performance that does stick to memory, such as when she sits down to have a monologue with the audience as a part of a song, or one where she stands on the Cryosphere monitors together with her male counterpart. Neither terrible nor particularly good, the set passes by unnoticed until they cover Paramore's "Let The Flames Begin", which even in a metalcore version is miles better than any other song we hear in their set tonight. Sadly, Cryosphere has few things going on them musically that would separate them from your dime-a-dozen metalcore band back when the saturated gray mass started forming around 7-8 years ago for this genre.
Crazy Town
Once you start reading about the Crazy Town story to update yourself what they've been up to for the past two decades, it's a pretty tragic and sad story. Two band members deceased of various reasons, and no original members left aside from lead vocalist Seth Binzer. They now go under the Crazy Town X moniker, all of which are factors that should translate to a pretty horrendous cash-in type of a show under normal circumstances. However, tonight is not one of those nights. Instead, Crazy Town delivers a surprisingly high-energy performance that has more in common with a basement style hardcore show than a cliché, out-of-date nu-metal performance we were expecting.
Not only is every band member on fire - with the Danish bassist throwing himself around the stage in manic fashion - but the rap-metal songs sound far better than you would imagine. They are delivered with a dirty, scratchy twist, creating a rowdy, high-energy environment that's driven by Seth waving a towel and shaking around the stage as if he was on steroids or something. "Toxic", for instance, sees him start by kneeling to the audience, before exploding off the bottom to a mental display of energy.
Crazy Town
Still, the set is very much an on and off set. They have a few solid rap-metal songs with a capital R, but for every memorable one, there are one or two anonymous cuts that blend too easily. "Pressure Fading Away" is another highlight, whereas "Butterfly" sees the only sing-along of the night. Even more surprisingly it is not the last song of the relatively short set, but the band tears into "Drowning!" and a brand new song that has a beachy, laid back feel much like 311 does on some songs. Overall, a surprisingly energetic and enjoyable show. Based on this one, it doesn't look like the story of Crazy Town is over just yet.
Photos by: Lykke Nielsen