After a damn near perfect beginning of the festival, it was now time for Alestorm to take over.
I kid of course, but yeah, it was time for Alestorm.

“We're Alestorm, and we're here to party! Are you ready to party? Then let's fucking party!”
- Christopher Bowes (vocals/keytar)

Alestorm opened their show with some kind of dubstep track being transmitted through the speakers, which was absolutely wrong for the place and crowd, and thus, in a strange way, made it absolutely right for this particular band. As soon as that was over, Alestorm was back in familiar waters however, as they opened the show with ye olde classic Keelhauled. When this happened, the crowd was all over them.
Say what you will about this band, but there's no denying they know how to work a crowd! And yet, this particular performance seemed to me calmer, less bubbly and insane, than what has become their trademark way of doing concerts. It was an unexpected break from the forseeable, when guitar technician Joel Peters (as far as I could tell) joined the lads on acoustic guitar for the Taio Cruz cover Hangover, but other than that they stayed well within the mold.

Even so, the piratey boyos met with great appreciation from the Slovenian audience, as was expected. And why not? Like it or not, they make party music, and they excel at it. Just listen to Mexico, third song of the day, and second song of the band's latest outing, No Grave But The Sea - if that doesn't get you in a good drinking mood, I don't know what will! Well, I do, one of the band's other songs of course. And the band showcased a host of them this evening. Most of them I knew even without following the band too closely, the rest were easy enough to get into even without prior knowledge.

“Anyone here likes sticking pizza up their own ass?”
- Bowes (vocals/keytar)

And Metaldays really did get into Alestorm! Not literally, of course, but you know…
The pirates had amassed one of the largest crowds of the day, and as soon as the show got going, the fans were right there to support the band. From the get-go, the stranded buccaneers were partying hard, dancing, and jumping. The crowdsurfing was massive! And then there was that giant bathtub duck. Ah yes, the duck.
As mentioned earlier, the band played a selection of well-known songs, and songs that were easy to follow along to, which meant that singing along as loudly as possible was a cornerstone activity of the show, but Alestorm invited other activities as well. For instance, when reaching Nancy The Tavern Wench, Bowes asked everyone to sit down on the ground and row along to the beat of the song - and almost everyone did! For Captain Morgan's Revenge, there was an equally impressive wall of death, and the aforementioned cover track got one of the most enthusiastic audience sing-along's. Since this was the first day of the festival being completely opened, I'd imagine not many had hangover's yet, and that might have helped.

For all the positiveness of the review however, Alestorm is still a very gimmicky band, and one I can only truly appreciate in very small doses. Two or three songs are ok, but after that, I'm ready to raise the anchor, and set sails for more fulfilling musical exploits.

Setlist:

Keelhauled
Alestorm
Mexico
The Sunk'n Norwegian
No Grave But The Sea
Nancy The Tavern Wench
Hangover (Taio Cruz cover)
Bar Ünd Imbiss
Captain Morgan's Revenge
Shipwrecked
Drink
Fucked With An Anchor