GAS GIANT- Tex Hot and Rock, København 12/5/00
From Aural Innovations #14 (January 2001)
Well, it has been almost a month since this show and I am only now writing up about it. This was to be the warm up show for the big Spot festival show on Friday. I was surprised that so few people came. It was Rikke (Stefan's girlfriend), Pia (Thomas's girlfriend), me, Henrik and Nik from On trial, Maria (Jesper's girlfriend) and one of her friends, a few other Gas Giant friends and one table of 10 headbangers. Tex is a heavy metal bar. Very small stage and the amps and drummer are not going through the PA at all. The band were very relaxed and were planning to debut a few new numbers tonight, so I was quite happy to hear this.
The band started at 11 and opened with Desert Call. There was a stoner band in the bar from England, whom I had been talking to about Gas Giant, Denmark, etc, and this very laid back opening song drove them away. The band sure lacked any punch with this first number. This has always been my least favorite song from the Pleasant Journey CD. Sit Down really started the show and sounded great but you could hardly hear Stefan, he needed to turn up. All Creatures was next and the band were starting to really get a groove going but Stefan was so reserved. The band was giving him the space but he was not taking off with it to jam. I was a bit disappointed. Too Stoned was next and then Alien Frequency, which we had not heard in a while and this sounded great. The band then did Freak Sensation and decided to loosen up a little and they made quite a cool jam out of it. I then yelled out New Day Rising, as I felt if was time to hear those new numbers. So they went for it. Perhaps this was when they were planning to play them anyway. New Day Rising, also the title of On Trial's last CD, is a great new song with a cool riff and slow groove. Lots of space for Stefan to either rip it up or go into space. The band played the song with a very heavy building ending. Cool. There's One was next and this has a very addictive groove and excellent vocals by Jesper. Very cool song. The new material really sounds great. The band decided to stop and take a break. About 30 minutes went by and they decided to play a little more.
The guys who did not know the band (the headbanger table) were quite pissed now and a bit loud but the band went into the slow building number, called Creeping (also new) but at about 3 or 4 minutes went into Holy Walker. This was a massive long jam the first time they played it live at Stengade in Nov. but Stefan spaced out the end and went into March of my Enemies, which the band turned into a 23 minute jam. The headbangers were screaming for more so the band played their heaviest song, Trippin' Away and that was it. Fun show.
Reviewed by Scott Heller