After having just witnessed the power of Anthrax three days earlier at the House Of Metal festival in Umeå, we had a good idea what we were getting ourselves into as they came round to our local venue, Amager Bio.
Still, that was a festival gig, and this was a regular concert, and the two cannot necessarily be compared to one another. Just take the length of the show as an example – Anthrax was out on their Among The Living 30th anniversary tour, during which the band played the album in its entirety, plus extras. Now, at the festival, there was only room for a very few extra songs apart from those of said album, but a little bit of research had told us that at their own shows, they were playing two entire sets of equal length. That was something to look forward to then!

With them on tour, Anthrax had brought the British melodic groove (as they call it) metal band The Raven Age. As you may have noticed, we didn’t catch them at the festival, and here they had already begun playing when we arrived at the hall. To be perfectly honest, it felt like no great loss to me, as we listened through the remainder of their set. Still, no complaints, as it wouldn’t be long before the band we came for would arrive…

“Hello Denmark, how are you doing?! What was it, last year? (replied: two years ago!) Ehr, yeah, I remember.”
- Scott Ian (guitar)

As soon as Black Sabbath’s The Mob Rules could be heard through the speakers, we knew what was coming. Well, ok, I didn’t expect the Blues Brothers version of the Otis Redding song I Can’t Turn You Loose to come on as a second intro, but as soon as the band entered the stage, and went straight into the title track Among The Living, then we knew what was coming!
It was the entire album through and through, with pretty much the same speeches along the way. Slight variations made it ok, but you know you always get some of this when watching several shows on the same tour. Jonathan Donais’ solo was, far as I could tell, identical to the one he had played earlier – showing of skill and speed, but not very interesting. Short enough though, and then we were quickly back in the set again. Three more songs to go, and then we would see what would happen…

“This is the last song! On side two! Yeah, vinyl, that was even before CD’s. And now someone’s asking themselves, what’s a CD? CD’s are old school, ha ha ha!”
- Ian (guitar)

The band members did shortly leave the stage, and come back for more songs, but it was apparent that something wasn’t completely right. Already at the start of the evening, word had gotten out that the band, seemingly shortly before the show, had decided that they wouldn’t do an entire two sets. Of course they wouldn’t do anything about the delivery of Among The Living, but the other set had been cut almost in half. Reasons unknown, and unexplained.
So, that was a bit of a let-down, to be perfectly honest. Sure, they played two more songs here than at the festival, but when committing to an idea of this sort, and then suddenly in the middle of it decide to retract parts of it, you can’t help but feel a little cheated. I know it’s not in good form and all that, but why did the previous gigs get a double set, and we only got a one and a half? A question we may never know the answer of, I guess. Well, at least we got Blood Eagle Wings, which wasn't even on the setlist for tonight.

Looking around me, it may not have been such a bad idea cutting the set a bit though. Amager Bio had attracted a large audience, sure, but it wasn’t the liveliest bunch of people. Not like the band, because they were all over the place, in a positive sense!
Donais still strike me as a bit anonymous in a band full of great characters. Ian kept a good connection going with the crowd though, not in the least with him taking the microphone between most songs. It was still Joey Belladonna and Frank Bello who stole the show though. Bello is a wild animal, hurrying back and forth over the stage, making frequent use of the specialised scene to climb up beside Charlie Benante, or going out close to the edge of the stage to get close to the audience. Not closer than Belladonna however, who spent an awful lot of time hanging over the pit towards the security fence, so that he could knuckle, shake hands, and deliver high five’s to those in the audience. All the way through, he showed an eerie amount of presence, and kept tabs of the people in the crowd, often making little personalised remarks or greetings. That was of course when he wasn’t making mad dashes back and forth, or jumping across the stage! The guy isn’t much to look at, but man can he deliver a performance!

Back to the crowd though. Of course people were shouting an affectionate greeting to the band as they walked on, and cheered them along between songs. But of liveliness, there wasn’t much to be found. The front was nodding vigorously, and behind them the occasional arm was held high, but it wasn’t altogether impressive, considering what was going on in front of us. I mean, when not even Caught In A Mosh can deliver a decent moshpit, or any at all or that matter, as far as I could see, then we are in trouble!
There was a lot of enthusiasm shown during the sing-along’s, but I could feel the energy die down about halfway through the set. Indians helped resurrect some stamina in the Danish audience, as did Madhouse and Antisocial, the most well-known hits, but towards the end, even the size of the crowd was beginning to thin out, little by little.

Even with my own lack of energy, I had after all only just arrived back from the festival this very same morning, I still enjoyed the show though. Even though it was cut down, the quality of the delivery could not be overlooked, and Anthrax delivered yet another killer show, full of energy and charisma.

Setlist:

Among The Living set:
The Mob Rules (Black Sabbath song)
I Can’t Turn You Loose (Blues Brothers song)
Among The Living
Caught In A Mosh
One World
I Am The Law
A Skeleton In The Closet
Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)
Solo (Donais)
A.D.I. / Horror Of It All
Imitation Of Life
Bonus set:
Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t
Madhouse
Blood Eagle Wings
Breathing Lightning
Antisocial (Trust cover)
Long Live Rock 'N' Roll (Rainbow song)