Gas Giant and Screamin' Erik and the Erections
Stengade 30, København 11/10/00
From Aural Innovations #14 (January 2001)
I arrived with two Belgian research friends just before Erik hit the stage. There were not so many people here tonight (25). I had not seen Erik and the Erections in 1½ years or so. They were very tight and Erik was quite restrained. He did at one point go out in the audience and drink some of the people's drinks, something I had seen him do once before. He even came up to my friend Harry and grabbed him by the neck and he did not know what was going on but Erik just asked him if he had a drink. Freaked Harry out! They played a very tight set. The material with the slide guitar was the best.
Gas Giant came out 30 minutes later or less. Pete had finally got his new drum kit after a one year wait! This would be the first time he played them. The band were pretty relaxed and played a very loose set. All the songs were played in a different way than I had ever heard them before. March Of My Enemies started off very slow and spaced out and Jesper delivered the vocals in a totally different style. Stefan was having some guitar problems during the first few songs and he would just disappear from the mix. It was very LOUD. More people had shown up as well. Henrik from On Trial was doing the lights and Bo and Nik from On Trial were there as well. Next up was Sit Down with the very heavy guitar riff. They took this straight into Down the Highway, which got really weird in the middle part. I was expecting to hear some new songs tonight but I guess the band is still not ready. Embrace, one of my favorite Gas Giant songs was next and the band turned this one into a massive 14 minute jam session with some great spaced out guitar sounds and riffs. Wow… All Creatures followed and the guitar part Stefan played was really different for this song. I am not sure I liked the change. This was one of the first real guitar solos of the night but Stefan still never really let loose. They spaced out the end and went right into a very moody version of Too Stoned. Very cool. I was very disappointed that this was the last song as they had only played like 50 minutes. I noticed on the set list they had skipped Alien Frequency, not sure why. Anyway, the encore was worth it. Holy Walker, the hidden track from the CD. The band had never played this track live before. It turned into a massive jam of 16 minutes with the band really getting into a cool groove in the middle and Stefan laying down his best most tasteful guitar at the end, very Hendrix inspired. Wow… Excellent jamming show but quite different from the last show, which was very tight and heavy in your face Gas Giant. These guys surprise you every time!
Set List: March of my Enemies, Sit Down, Down the Highway, Embrace, All Creatures,. Too Stoned, Holy Walker (66 min)
Reviewed by Scott Heller