Placing Airbourne as a headliner on the True Metal stage, and then handing Bullet, who play the same thing only a 1000 times better, a 30 minutes slot in the W.E.T. Stage is an outrage far beyond my comprehension!
But, as they were there, I certainly wasn’t going to miss out on the fun.

As I arrived, and elbowed my way in to a position to the far right of the stage, it was still some time before the band was to go on, and still the crowd already reached some way outside the tent!
This was nothing which surprised me in the least however; the W.E.T. Stage have for many, many years now been far too small to host anything more famous than the metal battle bands and the odd metal karaoke party. Not that this is stopping Wacken from doing so nonetheless, something which I personally think is a direct kick in the face for fans. But enough of this, I was there for Bullet, and by God, Bullet was what I was going to get!
The band went straight to it with the title-song off of their latest album, Highway Pirates, and already from the start the party was a given fact; even though we were packed like fish in a barrel both arms and voices shot up in the air and the place was alive with good old-fashioned headbanging! Loud and unrelenting applause took us from this song straight into the next one, Back On The Road, and I could feel the heat rising in the small tent venue.
On it went from song to song, and Bullet were determined to get as much action as possible out of the short time they had with us; hence the songs came in a rather quick succession, but not pressed enough as to exclude some time for talking with the fans.

That the many rockers around me had a positive effect on the members of the band was easy to see as well; Bullet has always been a joy to watch but it felt like they were prepared to punch even more power into the show than usual here at Wacken!
For instance, during Back On The Road both Hampus Klang and Erik Almström were down on their knees during the solo, providing us with some excellent posing! And if you wonder, then the answer is yes, posing is a good thing when used correctly (something this band excels in).
Dag ’Hell’ Hofer had a fun little trick p his sleeve as well; when it was time for Roadking he momentarily went back stage only to re-emerge with a large kings mantle draped around his shoulders! On the back, the word HELL was spelled out in bold, golden letters. What a striking site!
The only confusion arose as the band was closing in on the end of the show, and it was time to introduce the band members for the audience. Here, Hofer slightly misspoke as he called Adam Hector for Grosskopf (at least that’s what it sounded like), and who can blame him? Bullet’s vigorous bassist certainly does resemble a young Markus Grosskopf, renowned bassist of Helloween. Yes I know I have stressed this point in earlier reviews of Bullet, but I thought it was appropriate to bring up here as the band themselves made a point of it...
When the show was over and done with, and the audience had finished of the last choruses of Bite The Bullet, the band gave a humble thank you before exiting the stage, where we were left wondering why the hell they didn’t have more playing time.

Anyway, what can I say more than that I love this band? Every time I see them I get in a good mood, no matter what the day started out as (and this day had provided some pretty fun things already), and what more can one ask for? An extra encore? Sure, that could be it, but honestly I was happy to have seen them.

Setlist:

Highway Pirates
Back On The Road
Turn It Up Loud
Stay Wild
Roadking
Bite The Bullet