D-A-D (Live)

D-A-D, one of Denmark’s most internationally successful Hard Rock bands, has close to twenty years under their belts, and nine studio albums in their suitcase. Two of their releases, No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims (89), and Riskin’ It All (91), hold, no doubt about it, their best and most well known material. Thanks to several brilliant tracks from these two albums, the band always will sell concert tickets as long as they tour.

However, on D-A-D’s present tour, Scare Yourself Alive, the band dwells on no past glories. They apparently still want to sell some more copies of their latest album, Scare Yourself, as one third of their set list was reserved towards promoting it.

Fronted by Jesper Binzer on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, D-A-D kicked off the evening with the two first tracks from the new album: “Lawrence Of Suburbia” and “A Good Day (To Give It Up).” Despite the band’s hard-hitting approach and all the David Lee Roth qualities in Jesper’s voice, the roof failed to be lifted. Don’t get this wrong, the fans sure were happy to see D-A-D back in Oslo, but the first half of the main set hinted towards bigger moments to come. The first forty minutes also contained the mellow numbers “Soft Dog” and “Something Good” – a surprisingly early point for a muffled section. The audience was not yet ready for a break from the up-tempo treatment.

Afterwards the band and the audience came alive as the set soon found its way to “Makin’ Fun Of Money” and the killer song “Jihad” — the latter decorated with great guitar work by lead axeman Jacob Binzer. D-A-D has always added a lot of humor to their songwriting, and this evening’s big comic relief was (not surprisingly) “Ridin’ With Sue;” lead vocals by the highly energetic and colorful two string bassist Stig Pedersen.

Soon the audience got another rest as the piano driven ballad, “Hate To Tell I Told You So,” was played. This was a much more fitting moment for creating a zippo-oriented atmosphere. Afterwards, it was all about Rock ‘n’ Roll, all the way through the remainder of the main set. “Hey Now,” one of the best tracks from Scare Yourself, managed to handle this task to a certain extent, but it was not until the four last numbers that D-A-D reached their full potential as a live band. It was worth the wait, though. The classics “Sleeping My Day Away” and “Bad Craziness” were huge -– even though the latter was not totally played through before it was turned into “Unexplained,” one of the strongest numbers from their latest CD. “Camping In Scandinavia” brought the main set, successfully, to an end. Thereafter, the encores completed the gig as, among other fan favorites, “Laugh ‘N’ A ½” met the final needs of a happy audience. All in all, an enjoyable evening.

Setlist

Lawrence Of Suburbia
A Good Day (To Give It Up)
Isn’t That Wild
Point Of View
Scare Yourself
Soft Dogs
Something Good
Allright
Makin’ Fun Of Money
Jihad
Ridin’ With Sue
Hate To Say I Told You So
Hey Now
Everything Glows
Sleeping My Day Away
Bad Craziness
Unexplained
Camping In Scandinavia

Encores:
Evil Twin
Overmuch
Laugh And A Half
It’s After Dark