Life Of Agony

Copenhell - 2023

Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen

If you follow this site with any type of regularity, you will probably have picked up that I’m very fond of Life Of Agony, from the first time I heard the River Runs Red way back when, to the first time I actually managed to see them live, which was at this very festival back in 2015.
With them now returning to the scene of the crime, I knew there was a minimum of one show at Copenhell I couldn’t miss under any circumstances.

“Copenhell, it’s so great to be back here! I’ve got one question for you, are you ready to celebrate 30 years of Life Of Agony?!”
- Joey ‘Z’ Zampella (guitar)


To be honest, we were celebrating 30 years of River Runs Red, not Life Of Agony, but who am I to argue, when the band starts blasting This Time straight off the bat? No one, that’s who, because I was too goddamn busy singing along!
Life Of Agony was back at Hades, a stage perfect in size for this band, as far as I’m concerned. Second largest stage of the festival, it’s still intimate enough to feel a real closeness to the band, which was only supported later in the set, when Mina Caputo went down and stood on the security fence during Lost At 22 - a trick that was warmly welcomed by the lively crowd!
Life Of Agony has always been a great live band, full of energy and with a good connection to the crowd, and this day was no different. Everyone was doing their part, with Veronica Bellino rocking those drums, Alan Robert grooving his way through the set over to the left (as seen from the audience), and Joey Z jumping around and keeping the crowd on a tight leash. What was surprising, was the amount of improvisation there was to especially the vocals on the River Runs Red tracks - yes, the album has 30 years on its back, and I understand the need to keep it alive and fresh in order to keep it interesting for the band members to perform, but I suspect there may have been another reason for it as well this day…

“I’m on the biggest bag of mushrooms, it’s the best shit in the world!”
- Mina Caputo (vocals)


Yeah, Caputo, while still doing a good job, didn’t seem quite as focused as she’s been in the past, and as I mentioned, except for a few tricks here and there, the audience contact was left very much to Joey Z - the same person Caputo nearly knocked out by mistake, as she was swinging her mic around in the air.
Despite this, Caputo and the rest of the gang pulled off a highly engaging set, built mainly on River Runs Red, and it surprised me to hear that they even used the taped Monday and Thursday intersections in the set, only skipping Friday for a short break before they played two Ugly songs and one Soul Searching Sun. I’m not sure why they didn’t include any of their newer material, but I’m even more confounded by the fact that they skipped both Respect and Words And Music. We were after all celebrating the very album they’re placed on! Also, I really want to see Words And Music some day, but that’s a side note.

On the other side of the fence, the response to the band was great as well. Not surprisingly, there was a lot of loud singing along, only hampered slightly by Caputo’s improv, but that didn’t slow down the physical action!
After getting good and warmed up after the first couple of songs, River Runs Red got a good wall of death thrown in, and after a well-placed suggestion from Joey Z, The Stain Remains saw an equally impressive circle pit. When Weeds was announced as the last song of the day, the last remnants of energy had to be burned off quickly, and a veritable tidal wave of crowd surfers came cruising by.

This wasn’t the best Life Of Agony show I’ve been to, but it was still one hell of a good show, and the band continues to deliver high quality performances - let’s just hope it doesn’t take them another eight years before we see them here again!

Setlist:

This Time
Underground
Monday
River Runs Red
Through And Through
Thursday
Bad Seed
My Eyes
Method Of Groove
The Stain Remains
Lost At 22
I Regret
Weeds

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