After Royal Arena opened the doors with 4 times Metallica, they were now taking it down a notch. Or maybe just half a notch, we were still in rock country, and we had a double billing of Denmark’s two greatest rock bands of the time – D-A-D and Dizzy Mizz Lizzy!
All 16000 tickets were once again sold out, and D-A-D was first to play.

“Dear Royal Arena, what the hell have you been doing all winter?!”
- Jesper Binzer (vocals/guitar)

Straight from the start, we could see that the band had made some updates to their show. Well, I didn’t, as I was still fighting my way through the masses of people who had gathered in the new arena. Interestingly enough, the place was jam-packed with still-standing people all the way from the entrance up till about three metres from the security fence, where there suddenly was plenty of space. Weird.
But, I digress.
What we had in front of us, was the now familiar living-room setup, with the wall paper backdrop, the huge couch, and so on, and so forth. There was a different intro being used though, a sort of traditional native American chanting. Kind of like what we hear early on in Evil Twin, which incidentally was the first song played.
Both Jacob Binzer and Stig Pedersen had updated their outfits. Jacob Binzer was still sporting his more stylish approach, but had changed his plain black jacket for a more lavish version in sparkling red and white stripes. Pedersen was not so conservative, unsurprisingly, and had jumped into a full parachute uniform (well, without the actual parachute backpack).
Heck, even, and most importantly, D-A-D had played around a little with their setlist! They didn’t move completely out of their comfort zone, but it’s been a while since songs like The Road Below Me and Soft Dogs were played. And when Pedersen took the microphone for Never Never (Indian Love), I was stunned – definitely a highlight on the night’s agenda!

“I’d like to dedicate this one to my brother, who taught me to play the bass. He did a good job.”
- Stig Pedersen (bass/vocals)

The show itself was more in line with what we’ve come to know and love D-A-D for – it was a visual treat as much as it was an audio experience.
The band was fired up, especially so Jesper Binzer (whom I see in a completely new light, after hearing him play Behemoth – Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel, on his radio show one day), and something was always going on. The light show was nice, the Molly light-rig wasn’t there from the start, and the band had a good pyro show going on as well. On top of this there were some good sing-along sessions in the live staples, and some new jokes between songs.
All this hit home of course, and the huge crowd was routing for the band, cheering them on and singing along to the songs. A bit of dancing was seen, and some more office like types were getting their groove on with blazing air guitar battles.

Not all was news however. Pedersen was back in his sparklers helmet during the solo in Sleeping My Day Away, which was good, and missed the last time we saw the band. There was the mandatory calling for drum tomfoolery from Laust Sonne, although now presented completely without tomfoolery. No lifts, no burning drumkits, no surprises of any sort. But it was there twice, both in Reconstrucdead and in Scare Yourself. That’s overdoing it a bit, if you ask me.
About halfway through, the setlist surprises came to a halt as well, and it was as if this took some of the energy out of it. I’m not saying the band was bad, but it became more of a routine performance than something new and inspired. It was a bit off, in a way.
Still, when the brothers played Laugh 'N' A ½, it gave a nice and cozy feeling, to see the LCD screen that ran all along the balcony alight with twinkling stars, and all the telephone lights that the audience raised. Real lighters would have been better, but you can't have it all.

“All you who are not from Amager, did you notice how good we look? Not especially bright, but damn hot!”
- Jesper Binzer (vocals/guitar)

I always enjoy seeing D-A-D play live, and this has not changed. There were some clear highlights of the evening, especially so Never Never (Indian Love), but there was a bit too much of the same as yesterday as well. A couple of hours later, it was clear that D-A-D was not the one coming out on top this evening.

Setlist:

Evil Twin
Jihad
The Road Below Me
A New Age Moving In
Soft Dogs
Everything Glows
Reconstrucdead
Never Never (Indian Love)
Hate To Say I Told You So
Scare Yourself
Monster Philosophy
I Want What She’s Got
Sleeping My Day Away
Laugh ‘N’ A ½
It’s After Dark