Accept
Copenhell - 2024
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
The final day of Copenhell 2024 had arrived, and the band to kick it off, for us at the very least, was none other than one of Germany’s most iconic bands - Accept.
There had been a slight delay of the show due to strong winds and securing of speakers, but this may have been a welcome delay for the band, who had only arrived at Kastrup (Copenhagen’s airport) two hours prior to the show start.
Something told me their crew had been at the festival earlier than that however, as the decorations adorning the Helvíti stage were numerous as well as gorgeous. What we were looking at was some kind of combination of steampunk and industrial art deco installation with a futuristic cityscape and robot background. I especially enjoyed that the decoration wasn’t just static, but they’d even gone to the lengths of making some cogwheels move - that’s dedication!
Speaking of dedication, it was also a fun little detail that Martin Motnik was wearing a Danish flag belt buckle.
But how was the show, was it living up to its trappings?
Mostly, yes, it did. These are experienced gentlemen, and they know how to deliver. We were given a slew of sing-along friendly hits from their extensive back catalogue, and we were given them with conviction and balls to the wall (sorry, not sorry) energy. While Mark Tornillo was doing his usual stick as frontman of the band (and doing it well), and the string quartet, for the time being visited by Joel Hoekstra (Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Whitesnake), was a group of happy little posers (you know we like that), it was still Christopher Williams who stole the show as he was really going to town on those drums!
The show was fast paced and to the point, possibly dictated by the amount of time Accept had to play in. This didn’t leave much time for talking in between songs, but it seemed to work on the large crowd anyway.
It may have been just passed 4 PM, but even so, the band had amassed a good sized crowd before the main stage, and the Danish fans were happy to see them. No, this wasn’t the wildest show that ever visited Copenhell, but for the style and scheduling, it was an honestly good party Accept got going. Some songs were obviously more crowd favourites than others. Princess Of The Dawn got a loud audience participation in the title shouts throughout, and for Fast As A Shark, everyone was singing along to the Ein Heller Und Ein Batzen intro. Balls To The Wall was of course the main favourite, no surprises there, and of course the band had chosen this specific hit song to finish their show with.
Yes, Accept delivered a strong and enjoyable show, but for these guys, it also did feel a bit of a standard, run of the mill performance. Even a show of this type does contain at least some gold, but one has to wonder whether cutting it so short was really the best of plans, or if they had been able to give even more, had they had more time to settle in before playing?
Setlist:
The Reckoning
Humanoid
Overnight Sensation
Demon’s Night / Starlight / Losers And Winners / Flash Rockin’ Man
Princess Of The Dawn
Metal Heart
Fast As A Shark
Teutonic Terror
Pandemic
Balls To The Wall
There had been a slight delay of the show due to strong winds and securing of speakers, but this may have been a welcome delay for the band, who had only arrived at Kastrup (Copenhagen’s airport) two hours prior to the show start.
Something told me their crew had been at the festival earlier than that however, as the decorations adorning the Helvíti stage were numerous as well as gorgeous. What we were looking at was some kind of combination of steampunk and industrial art deco installation with a futuristic cityscape and robot background. I especially enjoyed that the decoration wasn’t just static, but they’d even gone to the lengths of making some cogwheels move - that’s dedication!
Speaking of dedication, it was also a fun little detail that Martin Motnik was wearing a Danish flag belt buckle.
But how was the show, was it living up to its trappings?
Mostly, yes, it did. These are experienced gentlemen, and they know how to deliver. We were given a slew of sing-along friendly hits from their extensive back catalogue, and we were given them with conviction and balls to the wall (sorry, not sorry) energy. While Mark Tornillo was doing his usual stick as frontman of the band (and doing it well), and the string quartet, for the time being visited by Joel Hoekstra (Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Whitesnake), was a group of happy little posers (you know we like that), it was still Christopher Williams who stole the show as he was really going to town on those drums!
The show was fast paced and to the point, possibly dictated by the amount of time Accept had to play in. This didn’t leave much time for talking in between songs, but it seemed to work on the large crowd anyway.
It may have been just passed 4 PM, but even so, the band had amassed a good sized crowd before the main stage, and the Danish fans were happy to see them. No, this wasn’t the wildest show that ever visited Copenhell, but for the style and scheduling, it was an honestly good party Accept got going. Some songs were obviously more crowd favourites than others. Princess Of The Dawn got a loud audience participation in the title shouts throughout, and for Fast As A Shark, everyone was singing along to the Ein Heller Und Ein Batzen intro. Balls To The Wall was of course the main favourite, no surprises there, and of course the band had chosen this specific hit song to finish their show with.
Yes, Accept delivered a strong and enjoyable show, but for these guys, it also did feel a bit of a standard, run of the mill performance. Even a show of this type does contain at least some gold, but one has to wonder whether cutting it so short was really the best of plans, or if they had been able to give even more, had they had more time to settle in before playing?
Setlist:
The Reckoning
Humanoid
Overnight Sensation
Demon’s Night / Starlight / Losers And Winners / Flash Rockin’ Man
Princess Of The Dawn
Metal Heart
Fast As A Shark
Teutonic Terror
Pandemic
Balls To The Wall