The triple concert of rock hits, which in all three cases also has flavors of other genres, promised great musical feasts. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that in a report from the Austrian Nova Rock festival, we reported with Ondra Hrick that Volbeat found their best show there since we’ve been going to their shows. And Skindred are also a certainty, they haven’t even had a downright bad set yet, and the June show at Rock For People, where they spun people around with their t-shirts over their heads and demonstrated a helicopter, is one of the unforgettable experiences of this summer. It is therefore not surprising that the majority of the audience filled the aisles of the O2 universe already for the first band. It is Bad Wolves who are raising the biggest questions this time. An agilely growing name on the rock scene, the change in the position of singer recently stopped, when the distinctive Tommy Vext, for reasons that are not entirely clear, which include, among other things, his relationship with the abolition of culture and the former support of Donald Trump, was replaced as the alpha male of the pack by Daniel Laskiewicz. We were therefore very curious how well he would fit the new role, because despite all the controversies, Vext’s vocal contribution was unique. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for a response.

© Vojta Florian / musicserver.cz

The key song “Springfield Summer”, which surpasses everything else on it by a difference of class, was not heard from the embarrassing new studio album “Dear Monsters”, and unfortunately we did not even hear the brilliant cover of “Mama I’m Coming Home” by Ozzy Osbourne, which the band released in of the world a few days ago in the hope of building on the success of the breakthrough remake of The Cranberries’ biggest hit. By the way, the hit “Zombie” was played, but the singer mostly left the choruses to the slowly warming audience, so they sounded empty. But the main problem is that we actually heard almost nothing. The seven songs played suffered from such a totally shriveled sound that it is impossible to call this noise a concert even with the best will. Those who had heard their work mostly caught up to the chorus, but poor people, all those for whom it was the first acquaintance with the Californian group. The technicians were not only able to sound their new leader, but also to properly illuminate him, so we could only see a black-clad figure in the shadows from his efforts on the pier. Disaster and amateurism. All that remains is to look forward to their next performance and make up your mind about the new vocalist there.

© Vojta Florian / musicserver.cz

Fortunately, with the arrival of Skindred, the impressions started to improve. The quality of the sound went up, and the lighting staff had already woken up. If not, Benji Webb would have given them otherwise. The charismatic frontman didn’t miss out on his spiked glasses, flashy red coat or the black British flag wrapped around his microphone stand. And subsequently, basically the same program as the band has been presenting for years applies. It wasn’t even a question of which songs they chose, because their composition doesn’t change much in the long term, but it was fascinating to observe them in the sterile environment of the O2 universe. They played countless times in the Czech Republic and it was almost always in dust, dirt and in the air somewhere at a festival. Most often it was just the already mentioned castle parade. They are at home there, they can control the crowd perfectly. In the Vysočany hall, however, they struggled quite a bit with the reactions of the still-sober audience, which apparently did not know them that well. Therefore, Benji more than once encouraged them to sing and get involved in the story, because if this band mixing crossover genres has any positives, it is above all the fact that they are excellent live. However, the audience reacted laxly, which the leader, to the amusement of the others, sent them to hell with gusto. Alternatively, he still pointed the middle finger at them. However, he was not vulgar, quite the opposite. Anyone who knew him was well aware that he only played on them with his anger to wake them up from their lethargy and to make them laugh. The summary of their concert was obvious – anyone who has seen them before had as much fun as ever, anyone who attended them for the first time probably wants to get to know them better. The only question is how Skindred themselves would evaluate the Prague set. Despite all their efforts, they only managed to stir things up in part.

© Vojta Florian / musicserver.cz

Volbeat brought to Prague a program based on the current tour for the new release “Servant Of The Mind”, from which they played six songs. The band, whose name is made up of the English words volume and beat (and thus do not have the same names after Pokémon), extended their setlist by two pieces compared to the June performance to a total of eighteen songs, which drives the double-head band directed by drummer Jon Larsen forward – so they also performed “Say No More” and “Doc Holliday”. As a bonus, excerpts from “Ring Of Fire” by Johnny Cash and “I Only Wanna Be With You” by Dusty Springfield. On the other hand, she took a lot away from the epicness of her production. Although we saw, for example, a spiderweb effect on the projection in front of and behind the drummer during the hit “Lola Montez”, in “Fallen” we flew through a cluster of stars, in the fiery “The Devil Rages On” referring to Metallica, red confetti again covered the hall. And that’s not all. “Wait A Minute My Girl”, Volbeat’s best song of the past few years, as well as “Die To Live” offered in collaboration with the saxophonist and pianist, whom the group now calls ZZ Bottom. At the first one, fans could also celebrate with black balloons, which were not available in Austria at the time. But it was still within the limits of more intimate exits. Like when you go to see a pop star at the Karlín Forum. It’s good, sometimes I’m excellent, but for the real stadium show, you need to go to Nova Rock, for example. It is only there that the Danish form is at home and its power is fully heard.

© Vojta Florian / musicserver.cz

Frontman Michael Poulsen is of course a great singer, so there was nothing to complain about in that respect. It’s just a shame that he didn’t get much more out of it between songs than the obligatory questions like: “Are you having fun?” At least we now know for sure what the band’s fans have been arguing about for years. Namely, one of her biggest hits, i.e. “For Evight”, which means in Danish “Forever”, is really a song about family and love for it, as Poulsen dedicated it to his wife and children. And he also dedicated one more song – the already mentioned “Die To Live” sent to the musical heaven to the legendary Jerry Lee Lewis, who died on the day of the creation of the independent Czechoslovak state. And while we’re at it, it would be worth finding out whether the Czech flag that the frontman raised at the accession message “Thank you, Prague” if the final volley of confetti in the colors of the tricolor was somehow related to the fact that the band knew how important a day they were playing in the Czech Republic. Or was it just a coincidence. But the main thing is that the three-and-a-half-hour rock’n’roll party was relatively successful, except for the execution of the wolf five.