Skunk Anansie were back at Rockhal last night for the 1st time since their excellent acoustic show a couple of years ago.Around 8 pm the opener Bones took the stage, and shortly after I heard the first sounds I went in to check them out, and they turned out to be the 1st opener in a long time to blow my mind. They are a trio (at least in a live setting), 2 guitars and a drum kit, and boy do these 2 ladies and a guy have a killer sound! Clever lyrics round out the package to be a great band. Unfortunately their set was only 30 minutes, but these were very enjoyable!
Skunk Anansie came on shortly after 9 and they were welcomed by a fairly loud round of applause. Skin is still the same powerhouse of a woman she has always been, hurling around the stage the entire show, crowd surfing, walking on hands, and commanding the entire venue to dance, and get down. The setlist was a great mix of old and new songs, and was well rounded out between slower songs, and the kick ass rock that Skunk Anansie calls theirs. They played for about an hour fifteen, and then came back for a 3 song encore clocking in the show around 95 minutes, which I liked a lot, but could have taken a few more songs.
The crowd was quite lively for Luxembourg, with a lot of people dancing and jumping around on occasion and the front third of the crowd pretty much dancing throughout the entire show. I started off a few meters in front of the soundboard, and ended up fairly close to stage as I had to get with the dancing crowd, just impossible to stand still when there is such powerful music blowing your mind. Unfortunately only few followed Skin’s invitation to really fuck shit up and essentially just let loose and go wild. When you look to the stage you can see 4 musicians that are just having a great time on stage, and that makes them sound even better. During the encore, Skin got the whole venue to get down, and then she started to walk through the crowd, found herself a comfortable spot, and then on the count of 3 everybody jumped up and she danced her way through the crowd back to stage, not missing a single note. She was in a great mood, as was the rest of the Band. Skin was joking with the crowd a lot, and was just fun to watch and listen to. Cass let us know that it was actually to the day the 22nd anniversary of Skunk Anansie, to which Skin added, that meant she started singing at the age of 6. Someone handed them a gift which turned out to be a print of the poster of their very first show ever, someone did their homework on this one, Kudos! The crowd started to sing about a 12 versions of Happy Birthday at once, and luckily Skin quickly put a halt to that, and got us to start over in sync.
Overall the sound was fairly good as well, considering the show was at Rockhal Box, which is the large room sized down a bit with a curtain, so there was a bit of hall, but the sound technician managed it quite well! There is just one more thing to add, and that is: Skunk Anansie is always great to see live! I have been seeing them since the 90’s and although I have not seen every tour, to me, they sound and are as great as ever! If you have not seen them, you should go see them!