Five years after their last visit, Pretty Maids make another glorious return to Copenhell, this time closing down the Hades stage and the festival on the second day.
Five years ago is also the time Pretty Maids’ latest album was released, although since Undress Your Madness wasn’t released until November, it was the first time we got to hear material from it here.

“Good evening Copenhell, are you keeping up the good mood out there?!”
- Ronnie Atkins (vocals)

The now highly familiar sound of the Mother Of All Lies intro greeted us as we arrived at the stage, and shortly thereafter the band also entered and continued on with that very song, which proved to be a great party opener, despite the serious subject matter of the lyrics. I was surprised to see just how large a crowd they had actually pulled, mainly because we had witnessed people leave in droves after Limp Bizkit’s show shortly before - I guess enough people were interested in sticking around for some real quality, which was heartening to see.
Honestly though, given that the average age of the band members is slightly higher than that of their American colleagues, and given that the band itself formed more than 10 years earlier, it was a delight to see how much more energy Pretty Maids came in with, and kept up through the show!
Especially Ronnie Atkins and René Shades were moving about all over the stage, but the rest of the crew were definitely helping with the entertainment as well. Chris Laney livened up when he had the chance to change from the keyboard to a guitar in selected tracks.

Atkins was talking a lot between songs, inviting the audience with his familiar tone, but it never got out of hand - the main focus was definitely the music, and I appreciate that. Of course, the crowd was invited to join in on the songs as well, sometimes to a varying result. In Yellow Rain for instance, the crowd was first asked to sing the first title mention (at the end of the second verse) by themselves, but being unhappy with the result, Atkins stopped the song and commented; “Let’s do that together, shall we?”, and this even after he had led the audience in a vocal exercise at the start of the song.
I’m pretty sure this was all done tongue in cheek though, as the crowd in general was very good at singing along to the songs. I mean, nothing ever beats the John Sykes cover Please Don’t Leave Me, which is probably why they almost always play it, but there were several of the band’s own tracks that came close to it, like Little Drops Of Heaven, I.N.V.U., and Kingmaker, to name a few. Yeah, as you can see, Pretty Maids may have debuted in 1984, but here 40 years later they are still pumping out material of the highest quality. One may even be so bold as to say that they’re even better now than back then, although I realise I could be stepping on some old school fan toes in saying that.

Pretty Maids delivered a tight, fun, exciting, and entertaining gig. Another strong entry on an already strong day. The crowd was with them, and honestly, we can only hope that Copenhell keeps inviting the band back more times in the future - I really can’t see why they shouldn’t - and even though they had been bumped down a stage size this year, their performance was headliner worthy for sure.

Setlist:

Mother Of All Lies
Kingmaker
Back To Back
Red, Hot And Heavy
Will You Still Kiss Me (If I See You In Heaven)
Serpentine
Yellow Rain
Rodeo
Pandemonium
I.N.V.U.
Please Don’t Leave Me (John Sykes cover)
Little Drops Of Heaven
Love Games
Future World
Sit On My Face (Monty Python song)