LIVE REVIEW: Volbeat @ The Ritz, Manchester
If you were to look towards the upper echelons of this summer’s European festival lineups, then chances are you’ll see the name VOLBEAT cropping up quite a lot. Over the last 13 years or so since the release of their debut album, the band have been gradually ascending the ranks of rock’s biggest acts, and are now back in the UK and Ireland for a surprisingly intimate set of festival warmup shows before they head off to conquer the likes of Download and Graspop over the summer. We caught up with the trek on its third show, at a sold-out The Ritz in Manchester, to see exactly how they’d get on.
Opening up tonight’s show are Dublin three-piece FANGCLUB, whose heavily grunge-flavoured brand of rock couldn’t really be a lot further in actual style from tonight’s headliners if they tried. It’s a strong showing nonetheless, and their performance proves an excellent means of helping to warm up the already packed-out The Ritz thanks to a collection of scuzzy, yet chorus-driven anthems. It doesn’t seem to take very long at all before much of the audience seem to have warmed to the group, and an excellent cover of NIRVANA classic Heart-Shaped Box only serves to seal the deal for the newly-converted. Make no mistake, this is a band clearly set to be going places before too long, and deservedly so based on this particular showing.
Rating: 7/10
Tonight though, it’s really all about VOLBEAT, and the Danish collective arrive onstage to what can only be described as a euphoric welcome, before promptly kicking straight into the monster riff of The Devil’s Bleeding Crown. Immediately, the entire building seems to become one combined mass of jumping bodies, raised devil horns and pounding fists, as frontman Michael Poulsen bellows lyrics out across the room, and the four men on stage set about absolutely laying waste to everything within their reach, to the delight of their fanbase. Of course, the greatest joy of any VOLBEAT set is the sheer musical depth that’s to be found within their back catalogue, and of which a substantial chunk is aired tonight. Merely second up on their setlist, the band simply go ahead and medley three of their biggest-hitters as if it were no big deal at all, combining Heaven Nor Hell, A Warrior’s Call and their version of DUSTY SPRINGFIELD’s classic I Only Wanna Be With You into one drawn-out blast of sonic loveliness that seemingly has every last person in the room singing as though their lives depended on it. The fact that this is quickly followed up with a run of anthem-to-end-all-anthems Lola Montez, the breakneck-speed rockabilly of 16 Dollars and the Johnny Cash-channelling Sad Man’s Tongue only further proves the band’s level of musicianship, and that they go on even further over the course of the evening is nothing short of a joy to behold.
This being still officially part of their touring for 2016’s Seal The Deal & Let’s Boogie, there are of course a lot of new songs tonight (around half of the album in fact), from colossally hook-laden cuts like Let It Burn, For Evigt and Goodbye Forever (the latter’s pseudo-gospel refrains proving a particularly enjoyable moment of crowd interaction), to slightly heavier riff-driven songs like Seal The Deal and the 58 second microcosm of chugging metal that is Slaytan giving fans of the band’s heavier side plenty to bang their heads to. As time goes on and the set hurtles towards its inevitable conclusion, there’s room for one big surprise too, as NAPALM DEATH mainman Barney Greenway suddenly appears from backstage and joins the band in a pummelling rendition of their 2010 collaboration Evelyn, in what’s easily the biggest pit-starter of the entire evening.
Following on from that obviously takes something slightly special, and luckily Poulsen and co. are more than happy to oblige by launching off into a brand new song entitled The Everlasting, that’s presumably set to feature on their next album. New tracks are obviously difficult to judge after just one listen, but this one seems to have exactly all of the hallmarks fans have come to expect, including an effortlessly-melodic chorus and some titanic thrash metal riffing from Poulsen and fellow guitarist Rob Caggiano in between. The aforementioned For Evigt and Goodbye Forever follow on next, before the band bring the house down with their main set closer, this time in the form of their old-west anthem Doc Holliday.
Ordinarily, that would probably be a fine ending point, but the band clearly have other plans and quickly return for a three-song encore that might as well be a victory lap of sorts, given the reception. Black Rose kicks things off again with one of Poulson’s signature melodic hooks, before ode to drinking and debauchery Pool Of Booze, Booze Booza ramps up the distortion slightly for the night’s final truly heavy moment. To cap things off, the band then bring several of the youngest fans present in tonight’s audience up onto the stage as they close off with one last old favourite; the Johnny Cash-meets-METALLICA rager that is Still Counting.
As the house lights come back up and punters gradually begin shuffling back towards the doors of the venue, it’s impossible not to look around and see the sheer happiness that seems to be visible on the faces of almost everyone. VOLBEAT are clearly a very special band to a lot of people, and the relative intimacy of shows like this, compared with their now-typical standings on much larger bills are great opportunities to see just how perfectly they have grown to thrive as a live band over the course of their career. If they can keep it up, then we surely can’t be too far out from the possibility of them even topping those larger bills before long either.
Rating: 9/10
Check out our photo gallery from the night’s action in Manchester from Jacob Kazara here:
