After a stellar show at Copenhell last year, Exodus was back in Copenhagen. Funnily enough, tonight they were playing only a few metres away from where they’d been then, as Poolen is placed right next to where the Pandæmonium stage is during Copenhell. Would some of that magic still linger in the air..?

The show opened in much the same way, given that they were still using Queen’s We Will Rock You as an intro - surprisingly, the until recently so lively crowd didn’t bite on this treat to play along.
Life came back as soon as the band started playing their own material however, and I’m sure the band’s performance played a good part in this as well. From the start, they were bringing the energy to the front, figuratively and literally. You see, there was this podium or platform at the front of the stage, and Rob Dukes was mighty happy to stand and walk on it throughout the show. Sure, the others were allowed as well, but this was mainly Dukes’ domain, simply given the amount of time he spent there.
While all of them tumbled around, headbanging, posing, and whatnot, I must give a special shoutout to Tom Hunting who was an explosion of energy this evening, and not afraid to stand and play at several times throughout the gig!
All this energy made the band thirsty, but to not prolong the gig, Gary Holt had Dukes strum his guitar while Holt was having a beer with one hand and holding down chords with the other.

That the band was a hit with the crowd was a fact no one could doubt. It didn’t take many minutes before the crowdsurfers started sailing past, and even though the pit was considerable all through the gig, The Toxic Waltz (opened with a short Raining Blood riff) saw it expanded to an enormous size!
At one point, someone in the crowd held up a cardboard sign stating that they could play War Is My Shepherd, and asking if they could play it with the band. Dukes picked up on it, and while they didn’t have time for it in their packed 45 minute gig, he promised they’d make room for it next time they came back.
Later, during Strike Of The Beast, a kid was invited to the stage to play around with Lee Altus’ guitar however, but I’m not sure if it was the same person who had held up the sign earlier. Being the last song of Exodus’ time on stage, all the crowd was invited to a huge wall of death to really squeeze the show for all it had, and it worked wonders!

If it was for some magic left behind from Copenhell or not, Exodus delivered a stellar gig full of energy and humour! They were even visited on stage at one point by someone wearing a mask (I think it was Todd Jones from Nails, but I couldn’t say for sure for obvious reasons), who also got to take over on guitar for Altus, who picked up on the joke in an instance.
Sounding the show off, we got Queen’s We Are The Champions as an outro, but the band had already cemented their admiration for the band, as earlier Dukes had done his own take on Freddie Mercury’s sing along segment from the famous Live Aid gig.
After the gig, all the members were happy to part with anything that could possibly be seen as a memento from the show; hell, Hunting even threw his drumming gloves to the audience!

Setlist:

We Will Rock You (Queen song)
3111
Bonded By Blood
Deathamphetamine
Blacklist
Goliath
A Lesson In Violence
The Toxic Waltz
Strike Of The Beast
We Are The Champions (Queen song)