HELLACOPTERS ::

HELLACOPTERS
flex / vienna, austria
21st september 2005

ok. so i am not a big HELLACOPTERS fan. heck, sure i like them! they are very good musicians, they're doing some great rock 'n' roll. i definitely like the HELLACOPTERS, but it's not like i care as much about them as many of my friends do.
and to me they will always stay 'the band that used to be roadies of ENTOMBED'. but, hey, let me tell you something: they play a mean concert!
holy crap on a pogostick! that was a brilliant show right there.

i was in a terrible mood all day long, which wasn't much improved by the fact, that i was in office until 19:45. anyway, when i got to the venue you couldn't - and preferably shouldn't - talk to me. since a lot of my friends and people that i know better and people that i just know were also in attendance, i had to be as polite as i managed to be... which resulted in me looking blankly into the distance and not saying anything at all. some minutes before the band got on stage i met a very dear friend of mine who managed to make me stop staring at least.
and all the time i was thinking: "man, this is going to be so disappointing. they just can't be as cool on stage as i envision them to be. especially not in a sold out flex. jesus... i give them one song. if the botch the first song, i'm outta here."
i was still around for the last song of the encore. these guys really know where to go and how to get there. fortunately for them the p.a. of flex is really good and made the band sound excellent. let me try to describe that sound without sounding like some hack from a music magazine, who knows everything better than you do.
ok. so imagine the bass. imagine a heavy, thumping bass, a bit groovy. a rock bass. now imagine that bass going in with 2 guitars and a drum. what's your usual experience? right. you don't hear the bass anymore. you just feel something thumping in your belly, which is parts bass and parts bass drum. or you can actually hear the bass, which usually means that the overall sound is so quiet and scattered that energy is lost somewhere between the edge of the stage and the first row of people. but not in this case: the bass was thumping and you could hear every stroke, every twang. or the vocals? usually too loud, or not loud enough, or too distorted or something. nikke was right in there, comfortably nestled between the other instruments. another fine example: the drums. there was a part where the drums played a short mid-tempo fill alone and they sounded kind of weird. but in the mix... perfect fit!

so, what is there left to say? HELLACOPTERS are an amazing live band and they write very good songs. although they still haven't managed to write a better song than their own 'toys and flavor'. :)