Pain was continuing on their I Am On Tour, going from a big win in Hamburg to whatever this was going to turn into in Berlin. Not being a stranger to either the town or the venue, Peter Tägtgren was quick to greet the local audience.

“Hey Berlin, it’s great to be back! Hope you had a great time having your asses kicked by the other three bands!”
- Peter Tägtgren (vocals/guitar)

Well, both Ryujin and Eleine had performed to a great response, but the true ass kicking had been delivered by Ensiferum, the third act of the evening, and it would be quite a feat for Pain to outdo what they had done.
To be honest though, the band was off to a good start. Kicking things off with Let Me Out, they displayed the same high energy and playfulness that had won them the evening before this one. Oddly, the crowd wasn’t quite there yet. Not that they weren’t enjoying themselves, they were clearly rocking out, but it wasn’t quite the same level of action as it had been for Ensiferum. Still, the night was quite young, and Pain had a long set to go.

They delivered the same varied setlist, delivering songs from every album except for for the first one, but having two songs from the as of yet unreleased I Am album, and even sneaking the fairly new The Rolling Stones cover Gimme Shelter, the latter getting the crowd good and seeing them up and jumping.
You see, the good energy of the band, and not in the least all the fun they had with their performance, like when Peter Tägtgren started giving out Jonathan Olsson’s phone number, so the audience could call him for a good time later on - much against the will of Olsson’s will, I should mention, but luckily Tägtgren couldn’t remember the last two digits - helped warm the crowd up to them. For my part, I was happy to see that they had something new to offer, and wasn’t just reusing the exact same jokes from night to night. This is how you deliver, you’re being present and going with your instincts in the here and now, something both Ensiferum and Pain showed they were more than ready to do.

This meant that there was a mosh started up in the crowd for The Great Pretender, a mosh that steadily grew through the show, being quite large indeed already by Suicide Machine and only continuing from there.
There was of course also a lot of shouting and cheering, as well as singing along, and for Shut Your Mouth, the crowd even got to take over the mic from time to time. A fair trade off, as Tägtgren had taken over a phone on a selfie stick from the crowd in Party In My Head, giving someone a very special video to take home.

Pain definitely managed to create a party in Berlin, something well worth remembering, and it was nice to hear that Peter Tägtgren’s vocals were back on top again (he had seemed to struggle a bit with Zombie Slam the night before). Was it better received than Ensiferum’s show, did it kick more asses, as it were? Hard to say, really, as the Finns had clearly had a lot of fans in the hall this night, but more importantly than that, Pain delivered on an absolute top level. And the audience wasn’t late in responding to it either.
Another wonderful show done and delivered, and for now, our time with Pain was over - but rest assured, we will see them again!

Setlist:

Let Me Out
End Of The Line
Nailed To The Ground
The Great Pretender
Call Me
Revolution
Zombie Slam
Suicide Machine
Monkey Business
Coming Home
Have A Drink On Me
Same Old Song
It’s Only Them
Bye/Die
Gimme Shelter (The Rolling Stones cover)
Party In My Head
On And On
I’m Going In
Shut Your Mouth
My Way (Frank Sinatra song)