This was round two between Airbourne and me this year, as I had very recently seen them at the Metalcamp festival as well. I highly doubted they would have something new to offer, but as this band is more balls than skills, it’s really the show it’s all about.

Airbourne was the last band to play the True Metal Stage for the day; they hadn’t been given a headlining spot since they had to compete with the Judas Priest farewell tour for this, but they had certainly been able to draw a huge crowd anyway. To be honest, I was getting a little tired at this point, and I wasn’t sure if I was up to this or not, but as I had some time to kill before Apocalyptica I might as well give it a try...
As it turned out, Airbourne went on almost 15 minutes before schedule without any given explanation, and they went straight for the kill with Raise The Flag as if they had no time to spare. I wonder why now, but at the time I was more interested in the show I must admit.
Joel O’Keeffe was the powerhouse package that he always is, and the rest of the band members were rocking well as well but not quite at the same level. I was actually discussing with Lunah (Lauridsen, our photographer) during the show whether or not Joel O’Keeffe would repeat his stunt from the Metalcamp festival where he climbed the stage rigging to the top for the solo of Blackjack. Wacken had, in an unrelated issue, announced that they had made their stages extra high this year so that they now towered over us at a height of twenty metres (more than 65,5 feet), so I reasoned this may after all be too risky for the daredevil; Joel O’Keeffe was of a different opinion. Just as I had seen him do earlier, he spun his guitar around to his back and started climbing. I do think that the height may have been a bit more than he had expected from standing on the ground however, at least he started looking a bit shaky when he arrived at the top, and even though he still refused to wear any type of protective gear, he did spend more time on getting a good grip with his legs this time around.
The whole thing went through without a hitch, but I wasn’t surprised the man needed a stiff drink when he finally arrived back on the stage; it may have been a few songs later in the set, but at a time the man covered himself in red wine, and because we shouldn’t feel cheated he also threw a bunch of beer cans out into the crowd.

And this was actually just what did the trick. No, I didn’t catch any of the beers thrown from the stage, but I noticed that the more of them I got for myself, the more the atmosphere at the concert grew, and even though the band (as I had expected) didn’t show any new sides of themselves I ended up having an ok time at the concert anyway.
I’m not saying you need to be drunk to enjoy Airbourne, but it certainly helps!

Setlist (incomplete):

Raise The Flag
Born To Kill
Diamond In The Rough
Blonde, Bad And Beautiful
Chewin’ The Fat
Blackjack
Bottom Of The Well
No Way But The Hard Way
Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast