Span has played at a heap of festivals this summer. Most gigs have been in their home country, Norway, and this time around they participated at the Baderock Festival in Sandefjord, being the last band to hit the stage before main act Europe entered.
Back in February they released their long awaited debut Mass Distraction, which was a great album. At the Baderock Festival, they played all the songs from this album but one ( “Wildflower” ) … and then some. They’ve been told to play a bit longer than they usually do, and quite a bit longer than what their material could justify – they were struggling to fill the time with crowd pleasers. Guitarist Joff talked too much, and the non-album compositions they added didn’t make the audience go crazy.
It took the band a lifetime to put their debut album out. Span were playing the same old songs for a long time prior to the release, and now the guys are eager at testing their present writing skills. Therefore they added some new songs like “Outside” and “Diamonds”. These were heavy and fit with the rest of their stuff, but still, being unfamiliar to the crowd, they represented the weakest parts of the show. However, Span are at their best when they play the hardest. Down beat songs like “When She Stares” and “Peaceful” got very boring, as they always do at Span concerts…
The need for changing the routines also led the band into adding a country and western intro to their hit single “Found”. Cool.
Even though they spent the last half hour performing remarkably strong songs like “Don’t Think The Way They Do”, “Papa”, and “Baby’s Come Back”, the show never took off. Most people had come to hear Europe of course, however, the guys never reached the top of their game. I usually find it hard to criticize Fredrik on drums, but this evening he sounded a bit uninspired. Even the charismatic singer Jarle looked a bit programmed. Conclusion: Great songs, average performance, partly ignorant crowd. I’ve been to better Span shows before.
Setlist
Stay As You Are
Mental Surgery
Buckle Under Pressure
On My Way Down
Outside
When She Stares
Peaceful
Diamonds
Found
Don’t Think The Way They Do
Papa
Entitled
Baby’s Come Back
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