pet the preacher

A Saturday night and rock'n'roll is a good combination. Can't be better. It was the Baroeg in Rotterdam that hosted one of those rock Saturday nights yesterday. A triple power rock package, being on the road right now in Europe, stopped in the Dutch harbor city to rock the house. Audrey Horne is the headliner of the tour supported by the Spanish four-piece '77 and Danish Pet The Preacher.

It was the Danish dynamite trio that had to warm-up the crowd. Unfortunatley I missed the Pet The Preacher show but what I heard was that the guys did a good job. And knowing their powerful hardrock/classic rock sound I can easily imagine that.

Than it was time for '77. The band from Barcelona made clear that Spain rocks. The big idols of '77 are AC/DC. They get lot of inspiration from the guys from down under. '77 plays straight-forward hardrock that is very much riff-based and has those typical AC/DC basslines. Actually music for live shows.

And that is also what the crowd got that night. In almost an hour the band burned down the Baroeg. The songs sounded live even better than on the album. It was amazing how tight they played together - esp. since they had two new guys on bass and drums. But the two youngsters did a great job. And in the end it is also the entertainment talent of the Valeta brothers that is a real success factor of '77. The two guys have been constantly in action, moved from the left to the right, played in front of the stage and actually took a round through the venue while still playing the six-string. This is rock'n'roll and if you haven't heard from the band before you should go to see them live.

This put a lot of pressure on Audrey Horne. Could they top such a show? Yes, they did. Bergen is more than only rain, clouds, black metal and death metal. At least since Audrey Horne started many years ago.

The focus of the five-piece from Norway was on their latest longplayer "Pure heavy". And their show was exactly this - 'pure heavy'. After the Muppets show theme as an intro they started with two highlights from the new album. "Wolf in my heart" and my fave "Holy roller" have set the tone of voice for the coming 90 minutes. A few more song from "Pure heavy" have got a spot on the setlist like "Volcano girl", "tales from the crypt" and a few more.

In the second half of the show Audrey Horne revealed also some older stuff. "Redemption blues" from "Youngblood" has been performed as well as "Blaze odf ashes" from the self-titled second album. Only songs from the first two albums have been missing. But however - each of the sixteen performed rock tunes was a highlight anyhow.

Also remarkable was the power the band spread from the first to the last note. Toschie was constantly in action. The trio Ice Dale, Thomas Tofthagen and Espen Lien was posing in best rock'n'roll style and Kjetil Greve's punch on drums was the merciless motor behind the other guys.

In the end things get really unique. The band actually left the stage and performed in the crowd while they have given the stage to a guy filming (I'm curious when this lands on YouTube). So you had Toschie, Thomas, Ice and Espen standing in the middle of the venue surrounded by fans which went crazy. This was a pure rock'n'roll feeling. And while other bands talk about being close to their fans Audrey Horne practiced it. Respect.

It was great evening with bands that are for sure fun to watch and listen to live. The tour continues through the UK, Germany and few more contries. If I would be you I would go there. Pure fun and pure heavy.

Setlist Audrey Horne:

1. Intro: Muppets show theme
2. Wolf in my heart
3. Holy roller
4. Youngblood
5. There goes the lady
6. Volcano girl
7. Out of the city
8. Tales from the crypt
9. Pretty little sunshine
10. Into the wild
11. Show and tell
12. Blaze of ashes
13. Straight into the grave
14. Redemption blues (Encore)
15. Waiting for the night (Encore)
16. This ends here (Encore)

Norwegian classic rockers Audrey Horne released a new album a few days ago. MHMB wanted to know a bit more about „Pure heavy“. I was talking to singer Toschie some days ago and he gave some new insights into the album and also a preview on the upcoming tour in autumn. Here you go:

Markus Heavy Music Blog: Hi Toschie. Great having the chance to talk to you. How are you?

Toschie: I’m good, thanks.

MHMB: Are you in Bergen right now - and is it raining (note: Bergen has a lot of rain due to geographical circumstances)

Toschie: No, actually we had a great summer this year. But there is a lot of rain supposed to come during the weekend.

MHMB: Something more pleasant is the fact that you guys have a new album up and running. How does it feel?

Toschie: It’s always a great feeling. It is something you work on for a long time, you develop it, you ‚polish‘ it’ and you want it to be as good as possible. So when a new album is being released it is very exciting since there is the curiosity about how people will perceive the record. It’s about the question if the fans like the new stuff or if it’s only us who likes it. 

So far we have received really good reviews on our album and this gives us of course a good feeling.

MHMB: I have to say that I like it too. And I can see some development during the last albums. It seems that you guys have taken away the melancholic parts in your songs.

Toschie: That's right. It just happened. We never really planned to change our music. But we adjusted the way we wrote music and we also recorded differently. On the first two albums we had the situation that Arve was sitting at his place and wrote some music. Thomas was doing the same thing. Than I actually came over to both of them and added the melody lines and the lyrics. After that we went into the studio with those finished songs, which we actually haven’t really played so far. During time we recognized that something is missing. We had the feeling that this typical live atmosphere isn’t on our albums. That was the kickstart for changing the way of how we wrote music. We began to work on new stuff all together in the rehearsal room and also tried to record live - all together. By doing this we had the idea to get the right attitude and energy on the album.

This way of working had an impact on our music. It is something different if you sitting at home with your guitar in your lap compared to the new approach. That’s one reason why the album lost the melancholy from your earlier releases.

MHMB: Classic rock got a bigger focus on „Pure heavy“. The alternative metal trademarks of the first albums are almost gone over time. Was this also due to the new way of working?

Toschie: The before said also had an influence on the more classic rock approach on the new album. It is basically the fact that all of us has listened to the same bands when we were young. Since we worked all togther those influences came more up to the surface again and had an impact on our music.. 

MHMB: This might also added a certain ease to „Pure heavy“. It feels like you guys did what you wanted to do instead of recording what you had to record.

Toschie: Yeah, it’s that, but it’s also the we are became older. And if you get older you start to care less. Things that have been really important when we started twelve years ago are less important today. We have chosen the approach of ‚let’s go out and focus on something that we enjoy‘. The rest doesn’t matter.

MHMB: If you compare „Youngblood“ and „Pure heavy“, where do you see the biggest differences?

Toschie: In the end it is very much the same. We wrote „Pure heavy“ in the same way as we did „Youngblood“, we recorded it in the same way and we also taped it live. The difference is that on the new record we wanted to use the benefits of the recording studio. We wanted to make the sound a bit bigger. We did some more overdubs, we used some samples and played around with some ideas regarding the sound. So „Youngblood’ is much more of a band playing live while the new album added another dimension to it. This is something which we always do. We don’t want to repeat ourselves constantly. We want to bring it to the next level.

MHMB:„Pure heavy“ has in the middle of the album an intermezzo called „Diamond“. It’s a full acoustic song and my thought was: Are you trying out if a ballad also would work for Audrey Horne?

Toschie: We started to write songs for „Pure heavy“ quite shortly after releasing „Youngblood“ and all the new material was meant to be on the new album. One exception: „Diamond“. This track is actually out of the „Le fol“ session. We wanted to do a slow song at that time. But for the one or the other reason we never finished it. While working on the new record we came across „Diamond“ and we recognized that it’s a pretty good song. So we sat down and finished the track. We kept it there, as you said, as an intermezzo and we realized that it shouldn't be too long. It’s enough to keep it short and acoustic. It actually was Jørgen, the producer, who convinced us based on the lyrics to keep it on vocals and guitars onl. And it works pretty well.

MHMB: Toschie, I heard a rumor regarding  „Tales from the crypt’.Is it true that you guys wanted to record the song together with Joan Jett?

Toschie: This is true. When we wrote the song we noticed that the guitars on that song are kept very simple and to the point. I just said, that it feels like a song Joan Jett should sing on. So we contacted our manager and asked him to try to get hold of her to see, if she is interested in doing something. But we couldn’t get in touch with her and we had to go to the studio. Time was running at that time. So we it was a good idea, but we did the song for ourselves.

MHMB: My personal highlight on the album is „Holy roller“. This song just blew me a way when I heard it the first time. I hope you guys have it on the setlist for the coming tour.

Toschie: Oh believe me - it will be there since we love to play this song live.

MHMB: Talking about the tour. Audrey Horne will be on tour this autumn in Europe. You’re supported by ’77 and Pet The Preacher. Do you know those guys already?

Toschie: I never met them so far but of course I heard their music. Pet The Preacher was fairly new to me while I knew about '77. I think it will be great tour since all bands are really good ones and fit perfectly together in a rock package. After touring with different bands like Enslaved and Solstafir in the past it's this time more a ‚good time hardrock' combination. 

MHMB: Toschie, is there something more from your side for the fans?

Toschie: Not that much, but I want to say to all the readers that they should check our new album "Pure heavy" and that they should come to our shows. As you mentioned we will have a tour now during autumn, but we are also planning an new tour in the beginning of 2015 to visit even more cities.

MHMB: That's good news. Thanks a lot for your time and we'll see each other on tour.

Toschie: Thanks for having me. 

Norwegian classic rockers Audrey Horne are on tour this autumn. Their support is 77 from Spain and Pet The Preacher. Sounds like a cool package. Here are the dates:

On September 26 Audrey Horne will release their new studio album "Pure heavy" followed by a tour through Europe together with 77 and Pet The Preacher. Sounds like a cool package

AUDREY HORNE 
Support: 77 
Opener: PET THE PREACHER 

26.11.14 Germany Essen Turock  
27.11.14 Germany Hamburg  Headcrash  
28.11.14 Belgium Hasselt Muziekodroom   
29.11.14 Holland Rotterdam  Baroeg 
01.12.14 UK Manchester Satans Hollow  
02.12.14 UK London Underworld  
03.12.14 France Nantes  Ferrailleur    
04.12.14 France Luynes  Korigan   
05.12.14 France Colmar  Grillen   
06.12.14 France Paris  Nouveau Casino 
08.12.14 Germany Köln Underground  
09.12.14 Germany München Feierwerk  
10.12.14 Germany Berlin Magnet  
11.12.14 Germany Ludwigsburg Rockfabrik   
12.12.14 Austria Wien Arena
13.12.14 Switzerland Oberentfelden Börom Pöm Pöm