Live Review : D-A-D + Hangarvain @ Academy 3, Manchester on November 20th 2019

Tonight is an Alice In Wonderland kind of night, in the sense that I am on the M62 looking at my watch and thinking “I’m late. I’m late”. The traffic is moving slower than a sloth with a bad leg, and although on the bright side they haven’t actually closed the motorway (yet) I am fretting that I won’t make it in time for tonight’s support.

As it happens, thanks to the Grumpy Husband finding some kind of star-trek wormhole, we do actually arrive at the Academy before the end of Hangarvain’s set. Much to my surprise, I walk in to them just starting a cover of Canadian band Monster Truck’s song ‘Old Train’. What’s more, they are doing an OK job of it. Hailing from Italy, apparently this is their first visit to the UK and they are determined to make the absolute most of it. A song from their most recent album follows, and there is a definite whiff of Pearl Jam about it. Although I am not a massive fan personally, this seems to be a Good Thing with the rest of the crowd and they get a pretty good response. Their deconstructed almost-a-jam-session version of that old standard ‘Black Betty’ is very listenable, and they finish with a couple more of their own songs that are in a similar vein. They have plenty of energy and enthusiasm, and although their sound isn’t particularly original it’s also not so derivative that I totally lost interest. If early 90s post-grunge floats your boat they are worth checking out.

On to headliners D-A-D, originally called Disneyland After Dark until the shadow of Walt (and the threat of a lawsuit) fell on them, they came from Denmark and burst onto the UK scene with the release of their 3rd album “No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims” in 1989. Since then, the core of the band has not changed, with only the substitution of a new drummer a mere 20 years ago. Although that breakthrough album gave them a That Song that got considerable airplay all over the world, they never really hit the big time and have remained a solid hard working touring band pretty much ever since.

Tonight, they are touring on the back of their 12th(!) album, “A Prayer For The Loud” which was released earlier this year. They start the set with ‘Burning Star’, the first track from said album, and there’s a bit of an issue with the sound. No vocals, oops. A microphone swap is soon effected and the band crack on. The set is eclectic, with both old favourites and a decent amount of new songs too (setlist picture in the gallery for the purists). By the second song ‘Jihad’ frontman Jesper is down on the barrier getting down with the crowd, and the crowd are right with him. Every word is sung loudly. Every chord is savoured, every bass note appreciated. Speaking of which, bassist Stig pulls out no less than 5 of his collection of oddly-shaped 2-string basses for us to marvel at. Yep, 2 strings. It seems he can get as much sound out of 2 strings played properly as anyone battering away at a 4-stringer!

Highlights of the set? For me, the slow, grinding sleaze of ‘Rim Of Hell’. The classic rock sound of new song ‘The Sky Is Made Of Blues’. The crazy punkiness of ‘Jackie O’ and ‘Riding With Sue’, with verses spat out by Stig. The crowd is respectable for a Wednesday night and seems to mostly be older blokes. This means that there is no moshpit, but there is a circle of furiously nodding heads in front of the stage. It’s like a convention of Churchill dogs! At one point Jesper leaves the stage entirely and comes out into the crowd, keeping up the banter with drummer Laust the whole time. Meanwhile brother Jacob in his trademark top hat throes out guitar sounds like confetti, bathing the crowd in them and loving that they are loving him. They leave the stage after the main set and come back to tease us with ‘Bad Crazyness’ before launching into the one we’ve been waiting for. Yep, ‘Sleeping My Day Away’, still as fresh and bouncy as it was when they first released it 30 years ago. 30 years! Amazing. Even then they don’t stop, battering us with another song before the final final one ‘It’s After Dark’. This again is screeched out by Stig and it’s almost a poem rather than a song. Nearly 2 hours on stage, all eras of their career covered, spot-on musicianship and a great party atmosphere. What a fantastic night!