My third CRASHDÏET gig – second with Simon, first as headliners. And yes, third is the charm. 

Simon was a bit drunk, but that didn’t compromise his performance, both vocal and as a guitarist. By the contrary! It made him looser and more full of life than the last time I’d seen him, two years before in Stockholm. In fact they were all like that. So it took just the first chords of “Change The World” for me to know that it would be an awesome show all the way.

Before “California”, Simon mentioned their late manager Michael Sundén (R.I.P.), how he’d been the only one who believed in them enough to take them to the States. So if he didn’t dedicate the song to him, it was implied in his words – words that at some point I stopped understanding, as this chick next to me decided to histerically scream at Martin for his pick, right in the middle of such a solemn moment. I know groupies are part of the rock’n’roll biz, but just because I accept them, it doesn’t mean I like them… 

I was happy to hear “Garden Of Babylon”, which I love but honestly wasn’t expecting them to play live, but the big surprise was “Liquid Jesus”, “The Savage Playground” bonus track. As Simon wrote the song with the help of a friend called Michael and he happened to be there with them, the guy climbed on stage to play guitar. It was nice, a really lively song, but I still prefer they’d have put “Falling Rain” back on their setlist. I know “The Unattractive Revolution” is the least sleazy, the least dirty CRASHDÏET album, but it’s still has a couple of great songs. And I think that “Falling Rain” with the strength of Simon‘s voice would just kick serious ass. But maybe that’s just me. Of course that the hits of the debut album were there and I believe that if Dave Leppard (R.I.P.) was watching these performances of “Tikket”, “Breakin’The Chainz”, “Riot In Everyone” and “Queen Obscene (69 Shots)”, he felt proud.

Speaking of “Queen Obscene”, when Simon asked “how many foxes are here tonight?” and asked the girls to scream the chorus, the result was a bit disappointing – he said so himself, and it wasn’t the usual case of the singer never being satisfied with the first scream; it was really bad. Then the boys screamed and it was better, and finally the girls seemed to wake up when it was time to scream altogether.

“Cocaine Cowboys” finished the set, with Simon stagediving into a happy crowd. 

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