Dizzy Mizz Lizzy
Royal Arena, Copenhagen - 2024
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the self-titled debut album from one of Denmark’s most beloved rock bands - Dizzy Mizz Lizzy.
This achievement was to be celebrated in style, of course, so the Royal Arena had been booked for a very special show.
Ok, so the amount of people in the arena had increased like an avalanche since Kellermensch’s support gig shortly before. There was no doubt who the interesting artist was tonight, and the place was filling up quickly with all sorts of people ready to enjoy Dizzy Mizz Lizzy! After a short, weird guitar and bass noodle intro, this was exactly what we got to do - the band entered the stage, and went straight into Thorn In My Pride. Yeah, before we got to the celebration of the ‘94 album, the band had a special curated mix of other tracks to deliver, to get us all in the mood. There was no time to think too deeply on that however, since the main concern was to not let the bass drum blow the fillings out of our teeth - the volume was mindblowingly loud, and my clothes literally swayed from the wind being pushed from the speakers! I didn’t expect that! Luckily, the mix was still good, even though the volume was at least at an even 11, so we could easily enjoy the music played for us.
The trio was taking the delivery quite calmly, well, maybe with the one exception being Søren Friis, who’s always a ball of fun behind the drums.
It was the music and the stage production that got to be front and centre here, and to their credit, it was one hell of a stage production. No, it wasn’t an elaborate build, like what Kellermensch had had, in fact the stage was about as stripped down as the performance from the band members, but those three round screens in the background combined with an absolutely amazing lightshow was quite enough to sustain the visual interest, while the musicians delivered the soundtrack.
While Friis held an enviable level of energy output throughout, and Martin Nielsen wandered around a bit aimlessly it seemed at times, Tim Christensen loosened up during the show, and when we reached the aforementioned celebratory album, he started moving around quite a bit more, and even jumped along to some of the faster tracks.
It was when we reached this point that the show as a whole really opened up as well. Don’t get me wrong, it had been great so far, but it was easy to see that it was this part they had given the most thought and work. The section opened with an old TV news section, interviewing the band shortly after the release of the album - man, they looked so young! - and this was interesting not to say a lot of fun to watch. The three were jokingly backstabbing each other, ending in them admitting that they actually do like to hang out and play.
On the live side, Christensen also opened up more between songs, and gave little insights into the history. For one thing, he brought out a black Fender Stratocaster, which he used for this entire section of the gig. He told us that this was his actual first guitar ever, and that the entire first album had been recorded using only this guitar. For your information, it still sounds good to this day.
The band sounded damned good as well, as they went from song to song. With time, we’ve become a bit ambivalent about the ‘play an entire album’ gimmicks which seems to become more and more popular. On the one hand, it’s great to get to hear songs that aren’t in frequent rotation, but the flipside is of course that you find out why they aren’t in frequent rotation. In the same way, not all the songs from Dizzy Mizz Lizzy (the album) worked quite as well. …And So Did I for example, was lauded by Christensen as one of the band’s own favourite tracks, but I’m not entirely sure why. It’s a fine song, but it didn’t quite cut it as well as many others this night. On the other hand, Love Me A Little went down perfectly, and we wouldn’t mind seeing that more often.
While it is one of the most well-worn classics, I would say that Love Is A Loser’s Game, performed solely with Christensen on the stage, and sung in large parts by the crowd, was a very special moment. This was underlined even more by so many on the floor and on the stands pulling out their phone flashlights to illuminate the darkened room - what a feeling!
I’d say it was a good idea for the band to change up the tracklist of the album, so that they could keep some of the hits for last and truly tie the night together in a memorable way. Waterline was the last track before the encore, and this was underlined with fireworks and the whole shebang, and Silverflame was of course the one to end the evening - again with flashlights out and the crowd singing most of the lyrics!
Dizzy Mizz Lizzy had set out to create a memorable celebration of a memorable album, and that’s exactly what they did. It truly felt like they delivered with all that they had, and every part of the show was firing on all cylinders. It was breathtakingly beautiful to watch, and the music was of course top notch - no corners were cut, and Dizzy Mizz Lizzy got all the props it deserved.
Setlist:
Mixed set:
Thorn In My Side
Rotator
Run
11:07 PM
In The Blood
Made To Believe
I Would If I Could But I Can’t
The Middle
Dizzy Mizz Lizzy set:
Mother Nature’s Recipe
Glory
For God’s Sake
Barbedwired Baby’s Dream
Hidden War
…And So Did I
Wishing Well
Love Is A Loser’s Game
67 Seas In Your Eyes
Love Me A Little
Waterline
Too Close To Stab
Silverflame
This achievement was to be celebrated in style, of course, so the Royal Arena had been booked for a very special show.
Ok, so the amount of people in the arena had increased like an avalanche since Kellermensch’s support gig shortly before. There was no doubt who the interesting artist was tonight, and the place was filling up quickly with all sorts of people ready to enjoy Dizzy Mizz Lizzy! After a short, weird guitar and bass noodle intro, this was exactly what we got to do - the band entered the stage, and went straight into Thorn In My Pride. Yeah, before we got to the celebration of the ‘94 album, the band had a special curated mix of other tracks to deliver, to get us all in the mood. There was no time to think too deeply on that however, since the main concern was to not let the bass drum blow the fillings out of our teeth - the volume was mindblowingly loud, and my clothes literally swayed from the wind being pushed from the speakers! I didn’t expect that! Luckily, the mix was still good, even though the volume was at least at an even 11, so we could easily enjoy the music played for us.
The trio was taking the delivery quite calmly, well, maybe with the one exception being Søren Friis, who’s always a ball of fun behind the drums.
It was the music and the stage production that got to be front and centre here, and to their credit, it was one hell of a stage production. No, it wasn’t an elaborate build, like what Kellermensch had had, in fact the stage was about as stripped down as the performance from the band members, but those three round screens in the background combined with an absolutely amazing lightshow was quite enough to sustain the visual interest, while the musicians delivered the soundtrack.
While Friis held an enviable level of energy output throughout, and Martin Nielsen wandered around a bit aimlessly it seemed at times, Tim Christensen loosened up during the show, and when we reached the aforementioned celebratory album, he started moving around quite a bit more, and even jumped along to some of the faster tracks.
It was when we reached this point that the show as a whole really opened up as well. Don’t get me wrong, it had been great so far, but it was easy to see that it was this part they had given the most thought and work. The section opened with an old TV news section, interviewing the band shortly after the release of the album - man, they looked so young! - and this was interesting not to say a lot of fun to watch. The three were jokingly backstabbing each other, ending in them admitting that they actually do like to hang out and play.
On the live side, Christensen also opened up more between songs, and gave little insights into the history. For one thing, he brought out a black Fender Stratocaster, which he used for this entire section of the gig. He told us that this was his actual first guitar ever, and that the entire first album had been recorded using only this guitar. For your information, it still sounds good to this day.
The band sounded damned good as well, as they went from song to song. With time, we’ve become a bit ambivalent about the ‘play an entire album’ gimmicks which seems to become more and more popular. On the one hand, it’s great to get to hear songs that aren’t in frequent rotation, but the flipside is of course that you find out why they aren’t in frequent rotation. In the same way, not all the songs from Dizzy Mizz Lizzy (the album) worked quite as well. …And So Did I for example, was lauded by Christensen as one of the band’s own favourite tracks, but I’m not entirely sure why. It’s a fine song, but it didn’t quite cut it as well as many others this night. On the other hand, Love Me A Little went down perfectly, and we wouldn’t mind seeing that more often.
While it is one of the most well-worn classics, I would say that Love Is A Loser’s Game, performed solely with Christensen on the stage, and sung in large parts by the crowd, was a very special moment. This was underlined even more by so many on the floor and on the stands pulling out their phone flashlights to illuminate the darkened room - what a feeling!
I’d say it was a good idea for the band to change up the tracklist of the album, so that they could keep some of the hits for last and truly tie the night together in a memorable way. Waterline was the last track before the encore, and this was underlined with fireworks and the whole shebang, and Silverflame was of course the one to end the evening - again with flashlights out and the crowd singing most of the lyrics!
Dizzy Mizz Lizzy had set out to create a memorable celebration of a memorable album, and that’s exactly what they did. It truly felt like they delivered with all that they had, and every part of the show was firing on all cylinders. It was breathtakingly beautiful to watch, and the music was of course top notch - no corners were cut, and Dizzy Mizz Lizzy got all the props it deserved.
Setlist:
Mixed set:
Thorn In My Side
Rotator
Run
11:07 PM
In The Blood
Made To Believe
I Would If I Could But I Can’t
The Middle
Dizzy Mizz Lizzy set:
Mother Nature’s Recipe
Glory
For God’s Sake
Barbedwired Baby’s Dream
Hidden War
…And So Did I
Wishing Well
Love Is A Loser’s Game
67 Seas In Your Eyes
Love Me A Little
Waterline
Too Close To Stab
Silverflame
Dizzy Mizz Lizzy
