Like so many others of my generation, I was rocking out to Weak when it broke charts back in ‘95-’96, but being just a tad too young to go out and see the band back then, watching Skunk Anansie was one treat I was looking forward to at this years’ Copenhell, and a treat I was not made to wait long for.

“Well, this is fucking nice, isn’t it?”
- Deborah ‘Skin’ Dyer (vocals)

Being the first band to play the Helvíti stage this year, I could imagine some pressure being felt by the band, but if this was in fact the case, they didn’t let on.
The stage setup was fun with loads of black spikes all over and there was a short, fun intro played as the band entered the stage and went straight into opening rock track This Means War, quite a statement and a great way to kick the day off.
The band was loose, easy going, and yet full of energy and bite, and nobody more so than enigmatic frontwoman Skin. Big, flowing suit combined with big, flowing movements as she traversed the stage and interacted with both crowd and band mates, and a voice of fire. And as an aside, with all the black colour scheme going on on the stage, I couldn’t help but smile with delight at the bright pink hip flask Skin took a swig of once in a while.
Mark Richardson and Richard ‘Cass’ Lewis delivered the groove that’s the backbone of the music and spirit of the band, and Martin ‘Ace’ Kent was really rocking it out with a lot of movement and jumps and so on.

While the band did kick it off with high tempo and energy, said tempo and energy in the songs did go down a bit in the big middle section of the set. Luckily, the performance didn’t go down in the same way, and Skin worked the audience well to keep everybody on their toes. For Because Of You, she had us singing along to the guitar melody in the beginning, something that was met with a fairly good response, and I was positively surprised to see a moshpit form after a while as well.
Despite the very slight middle slump, the energy was not only renewed, but blown completely out of proportion with an amazingly strong third act. Weak had exactly the kind of effect you’d imagine, I Can Dream saw Skin go out into the crowd and play along with the best of them (ending in a saucy thanks to the big guy who crowdsurfed her back to stage at the end), and Little Baby Swastikkka even got a wall of death going!

I had hoped I’d enjoy this first encounter with Skunk Anansie in a live setting, but honestly, I never imagined they’d be this good and this full of energy! This show was an absolute blast, and definitely one of the concerts that’ll be best remembered from this years’ festival - and to think it was only the second concert we saw there!

Setlist:

This Means War
Charlie Big Potato
Because Of You
An Artist Is An Artist
Twisted (Everyday Hurts)
Cheers
Lost And Found
Animal
Weak
I Can Dream
Little Baby Swastikkka