Original Portuguese version on World Of Metal.

For Márcio and my boss Nando.

In February OVERKILL had released their 19th studio album, “The Wings Of War”, and after a North American tour it was time to hit Europe. The festival dates were already part of the European leg but the real Killfest Tour 2019 kicked off that night in Porto.

After a song off the new album (“Last Man Standing”), one a few years old (“Electric Rattlesnake”) and a classic (“Hello From The Gutter”), Bobby Blitz addressed the audience saying there were only two rules: one, he was in charge; two, “don’t be a pussy”. This related to the volume of our screams which, as always, wasn’t loud enough. But the truth is, no matter how hard you blast your vocal cords, when Blitz tells you not to be a pussy, you manage to make better.

Each one of us will certainly have their own highlight of this show. Personally, mine was “Bastard Nation”, a song that marked my teenage years and that I had seen live only once before, in 2008 (see here). After this, I decided to look for a place more in the back, where the air conditioning felt stronger, and that’s when I realized how packed the venue was. Not sold out, but certainly not far from it. Such sight is always a pleasure.

More than once did Blitz say how much he loved Portugal and how good it was looking at all those “beautiful Portuguese faces”, remembering also the gig “at the other Hard Club, a long long time ago” (19 years, to be precise) and naming all the other national cities they’ve played in. The intro to “Feel The Fire” was extended so Blitz could introduce “two good friends of his who were also our friends” – drummer Jason Bittner, “for the first time in Portugal” (Bittner had joined OVERKILL only two years before) and bass player D.D. Verni. Proving that the latter, co-founder of the band, didn’t need any introduction, the ovation was way louder.

Already on the encore, Blitz said that his mamma had always told him when he was a little boy to find something he loved to do and friends to do it with him, and he’d be a happy man for the rest of his life. Well he had friends (the band) and all of them had friends there in Porto with an “Ironbound”.

Needless to say that THE SUBHUMANS‘ “Fuck You” closed the show, this time with “Welcome To The Garden State” in-between, and when resuming “Fuck You”, Blitz changed “don’t be a pussy” to “don’t fuck up!”. Of course he didn’t like what he heard – once again – so he screamed “you fucked up!”. And we screamed back louder. Once again.

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