Pain was another one of the must-see concerts for us at Metaldays this year. So much a must in fact, that Lunah Lauridsen willed herself through the throes of sickness to be there. Through a further stroke of luck, combined with good leg-work, she got the opportunity to shoot the show a bit more special than usual. We hope you appreciate it, and at the same time thank the band and the Metaldays crew who made it possible.

“Fuck it, let’s just do this.”
- Peter Tägtgren (vocals/guitar)

Picture this: it’s the final day of the festival, the weather is great. The sun is just setting behind the Alps opposite the stage, and on the stage Pain was getting ready to blow off some of the final energy preserves we had. Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell is blasting from the speakers, and the crowd is in place. In comes the band, and straight off the bat we got End Of The Line.

Given the title, one could say this was an odd choice for an opener, but the energy and the familiarity made it a perfect fit. Moving directly over into Zombie Slam after End Of The Line, the band wasn’t about to let up on the hold they had on us. Later, Peter Tägtgren would pause and deliver various comments and jokes, but for, it was full speed ahead.
Actually, it didn’t take longer than the third song, A Wannabe, before Tägtgren got more directly involved with the audience, as he instigated a rhythmic side-to-side wave following along with the acoustic section of this happy little tune.
Besides Tägtgren, the band consisted of David Wallin on drums, Greger Andersson on guitar, and, wait, who was that? Jonathan Olsson on bass? Well, that was a surprise! And it took more than half the show before Tägtgren remembered to introduce us, saying; “Oh, sorry. André couldn’t make it tonight. This is Jonte from Dynazty!”
Our usual bass madman, André Skaug, was out with his main band, Clawfinger, and as a replacement Tägtgren had pulled Jonathan Olsson from the Swedish power metal band Dynazty in. Dynazty, if you remember, played support for Pain on the last tour we saw with them. Tägtgren also produced the band’s latest album, so there is at least a strong connection. Olsson’s playing skills were of course up to chops, otherwise he wouldn’t be here, but it still felt like a strange mix. Olsson was quite simply both younger, but even more so, healthier looking than the rest of the band. There was none of the jaded bitterness, the heavy lines below the eyes, the long nights of boozing. Don’t get me wrong, I love these guys, but they’re not what you would call exemplary examples on how to lead a healthy lifestyle.
As the new kid on the block, Olsson was of course also given a hard time, with a friendly wink in the eye, from Tägtgren. This was in the midst of a lot of failing jokes that were supposed to introduce Dirty Woman, something that ended in Tägtgren saying the above comment. On the other hand, he played very well together with Andersson, as the two chased each other around the stage, posed up against one another, and in general just had a lot of fun.

“Hey, you guys have a telephone? (silence) I guess they don’t have a telephone. You guys have a fucking telephone?! (yeah!) Then fucking call me!”
- Tägtgren (vocals/guitar)

Pain wasn’t the headliner of the day, but you couldn’t tell judging by the large crowd that had come out for the show.
The high energy of the delivery went straight home with the audience as well, and in the middle quite a few crowdsurfers sailed by on a throng of banging heads. There was surprisingly little moshing, but when looking at the less crowded sides of the audience, a lot of dancing could be seen. Not exactly a common feature at the festival, but somehow fitting to the band and music. Another unexpected surprise was that during the song Dirty Woman, only women crowdsurfed. Not sure how this came about, but it was quite cool actually.
The Metal-days-heads didn’t have to think about everything themselves though – I have already mentioned that Tägtgren didn’t mind asking something of his fans, and it didn’t stop with the waving arms. There were several good sing-along moments, the most outstanding of them being in Shut Your Mouth, where the crowd shouted “Just wipe your own ass” and Tägtgren replied “and shut your mouth!”. This song also had an impressive wall of death in its beginning – the first wall of death I ever remember seeing at a Pain show.
The band didn’t just deliver energy to the crowd though, they also fed off what they got in return, and it made them even livelier. They were now jumping, running, and headbanging – sometimes in strange combinations! During On And On, all three in the front constantly changed microphone positions with each other, and all had fun feigning surprise over the Joacim Brodén puppet in Call Me. Pain In The Ass gave the tech guys room to play, as there was a break in which we saw an impressive multicoloured disco lightshow.
At the end, only Wallin had any strength left, and thus the concert ended with a short drum solo, during which the other three fell over and lay flat on the floor, catching their breath before getting back up to take a bow, and shower the audience with sticks and picks.

Pain was one of the bands that brought us to the festival this year, figuratively speaking, and this show proved just why this was.
Picture this: It’s the final day of the festival. The sun has now gone down, it’s dark, and we have full pleasure in the production on the stage. One of the biggest name on the line-up is delivering a damn near perfect gig. Sweet, isn’t it? That’s exactly what we felt too.

Setlist:

Rebel Yell (Billy Idol song)
End Of The Line
Zombie Slam
A Wannabe
Call Me
It’s Only Them
Suicide Machine
The Great Pretender
Monkey Business
Dirty Woman
Pain In The Ass
Same Old Song
I’m Going In
On And On
Shut Your Mouth
My Way (Frank Sinatra version)