Pain

Mejeriet, Lund - 2024

Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen

With a well-packed Mejeriet, and a support band over and done with, it was now time for Pain to do what they do best, and do it on their home turf even. How would that go, one has to wonder…

Pain was still using the video intro we first saw back in 2022, but if I’m not mistaken, this felt like an edited down version of said intro. It seemed very short, and the band was quick to take their place on the stage - no fireworks to announce their arrival, like Metalite before them, but on the other hand, the warm welcome from the crowd showed that they didn’t exactly need such extravaganzas.
The show itself opened with Same Old Song, a great song under any circumstance, and a fine choice for an opener. Sebastian Tägtgren and Jonathan Olsson were the first out, and Peter Tägtgren and Sebastian Svalland joined them when it was time for the guitars to kick in. Already here, we could see a far better response from the crowd than we had all evening up to this point. When Call Me rolled around, we even saw a good sized moshpit start, and people were calling out for ‘Jocke’ (Joakim Brodén of Sabaton) as his face filled the video screen for his guest appearance in the song.

“It doesn’t get any more fun than this!”
- Peter Tägtgren (vocals/guitar)


While the crowd was throwing all that they had into it, sadly the same could not be said for the band. Sure, they were headbanging some, but we got all the way to the eighth track of the night, Zombie Slam, before any one of them moved out of their designated spots. At first I thought it might have been a space issue, but then I quickly remembered that Metalite had one more person on the same stage, and they were far more active than this.
After Pain cracked this particular nut, they did get a bit more into it, but come on, that’s halfway through the show already!
After this, it was of course time for the many outfit changes, starting with Go With The Flow, then another change for Party In My Head, and a final one for Coming Home.
For Party In My Head, a bunch of large beach balls were thrown to the audience to play with (a highly popular trick), and for Coming Home, we saw Svalland playing an acoustic guitar, which also was a nice change o’ pace for the band. Have A Drink On Me saw the band on bar stools of course - even Olsson got one to begin with, but when he questioned the decision, it was quickly changed to a low apple box instead, with Peter Tägtrgren remarking that; “Yeah, that’s what you get.”

With the resident alien character having fun during Shut Your Mouth, even going into the audience to mess about, and with presenting an unusually good looking lightshow, it can’t be denied that the band itself seemed unordinarily tired this evening, and even with the lift towards the end and the music being well delivered, this was sadly a sub Pain standard performance that will be quickly forgotten.

Setlist:

Same Old Song
I’m Going In
Don’t Wake The Dead
Call Me
Push The Pusher
Revolution
End Of The Line
Zombie Slam
Suicide Machine
The Great Pretender
Go With The Flow
Party In My Head
Coming Home
Have A Drink On Me
Let Me Out
On And On
Shut Your Mouth

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