When Copenhell acquired Metallica to open the warm-up day of the festival, it wouldn’t do to place them on the small Pandæmonium Stage, which usually is the only one open this day. No, they needed the large Helvíti Stage, and that meant the whole festival area needed to be opened up. It also meant that more bands needed to fill the stages, and that’s where Suicidal Tendencies came in. They were the first band to play the Helíti Stage, and it was up to them to kick the festival into gear.

“Denmark! Denmark! I wanna know one thing - what the fuck is going on around here?!”
- Mike Muir (vocals)

When the musicians were getting ready, Suicidal kicked their show off with a hype man running round the circular catwalk provided by the day’s main act, shouting up the crowd. That’s a first for me, but I liked it, and I can’t argue with the result - when the music began, and Mike Muir entered the stage, people were already lit and welcomed the band with enthusiastical shouts.
Muir, at an impressive 59 years, was an energy bomb from start to finish. He ran up and down the catwalk, was in constant conversation with the crowd when not singing, and in general slayed the show. It struck me that the hype man thing was fun, but was it really necessary with a frontman like this?
In fact, the whole band was rocking out. I was standing closest to Dean Pleasants, who might have gone as much around the catwalk as Muir, but I’m sure the only reason for this was that his guitar was plugged in by chord, and it just didn’t reach that far - rest assured that he used it to its full extent as much as he could!
Temporarily on the other side of the stage, we had Ben Weinman, who was a super poser in the best way. I say temporarily, because his guitar was not bound by a chord, and he took full advantage of that fact.
I don’t know why exactly Dave Lombardo and Ra Díaz weren’t with the band this day, but the bass and drums were expertly headed up by the band’s steady live crew instead. Brandon Pertborn was having a party behind the skins (that sounds dirtier than intended), and when I noticed Rob Trujillo hanging out at the side of the stage, I figured it was just to hang out with his old band mates. I didn’t know at this point that Suicidal’s live bassist was in fact Trujillo’s son, Tye Trujillo. Talk about walking in his father’s footsteps.

“If you kiss ass, you acquire a taste for shit!”
- Muir (vocals)

Even though Suicidal Tendencies was the first band of the day on this stage, there was still an impressive amount of people gathered to see them. Definitely worth a main stage billing.
The response more reflected the early hour of the day however; the crowd was enthusiastic and cheered the band on, but there wasn’t a high level of activity yet. A small mosh had gathered just outside the catwalk, but other than that, we mostly saw raised fists and applaus between songs. Well, apart from the many thankful people who aimed for collecting the great amounts of guitar picks Pleasants kept throwing through the show.

Apparently, the band had had the bad luck of losing all their equipment in their air travels, but another band had lent them their gear, so the show could go on. Honestly, I didn’t notice they were playing unfamiliar instruments for one second, as they completely wrecked the stage from start to finish. Metallica may have been the headliner of the day, but this is how you fucking open it! What an unforgettable party!

Setlist:

You Can’t Bring Me Down
Send Me Your Money
Freedumb
War Inside My Head
Subliminal
Possessed To Skate
Pledge Your Allegiance