Volbeat

19.11.2014

Danish rock band Volbeat made a first time visit to the city of Portsmouth tonight and being the only south coast date and the penultimate date of their UK tour, it was a packed venue that came out to see them. With the odd Viking hat, a few fellow danes in the crowd and a mass of Volbeat attire, the crowd cheered as ‘Let’s Shake The Dust’ introduced the band onto the stage.

Volbeat were here to rock to an eager crowd and there was no let-up of the excellent tunes from vocalist and guitarist Michael Poulsen, bassist Anders Kjølholm, guitarist Rob Caggiano, and drummer Jon Larsen. Starting with ‘Hallelujah Goat’ it was riff upon riff of their best songs through the entire set. Sporting a union jack T-shirt, Rob looked as delighted to be playing to the audience, along with the rest of the band, as much as the crowd were being delighted by Volbeat being here.

Adding in songs such as ‘The Nameless One’ the crowd were even treated to some Johnny Cash with ‘Ring Of Fire’ that was sung back to the band as loud as they played it and an very fine Elvis impersonation from Michael. ‘Sad Man’s Tongue’ was a crowd pleaser along with the ever popular ‘Lola Montez’.

What was really great to see was how the band kept swapping over microphones on the stage so that everyone around the room and especially those to the side got a closer view of each of the band on their guitars, something not usually seen at a gig and made you think that this is a band that isn’t just there to play the songs but to entertain as well.

Mid-way through the set, spotting 2 children on the shoulders of their dads, Michael spoke to them across the floor and finding out they were 7 then asked if their dads had got them Volbeat T-shirts. When both said no, Michael then crowd surfed over to where they were standing and handed them a volbeat T-Shirt each, much to the delight of the kids, the dads and the whole crowd who thought this was a great gesture from the band.

Back to more songs, there were further tracks such as ‘Dead But Rising’ and a really cool version of the Dusty Springfield classic ‘I Only Want To Be With You’ and ‘The Lonesome Rider’, ‘The Mirror And The Ripper’ and ‘The Hangman’s Body Count’ to close the set.

With the crowd calling for more it was ‘Pool Of Booze, Booze, Booza’, ‘Fallen’ and ‘Still Counting’ that brought the energetic set to a close for their final songs of the evening.

It had been a great experience to see Volbeat rock Portsmouth tonight and live they were every bit as awesome as their albums. They did ask if they could come back and the crowd couldn’t have been louder in saying yes. Let’s hope they do.