Danko Jones-Live at Wacken

This was recorded at Danko Jones third appearance at Wacken last year and captures the enigmatic front man at his best.  So far Danko’s quirky, alternative, electric personality has seen him become an independent commentator, spoken word artist and columnist for The Huffington Post. On this though, he is the front man and guitarist of Danko Jones, the group which also features John Calabrese on bass with Rich Knox on drums.

The minimal stage production helps with the style of Jones’ music, straight forward punk edged rock and roll, with a light touch of the blues. The concert is well-shot and the sound is as expected, excellent, presented here in Stereo.  It is just like being at Wacken, there is no 5.1 dolby surround sound option.

The set list itself is about as varied as possible as Danko includes at least one track from every one of his ten albums, as he powers  through 18 songs in just 70 minutes.

Opening track, ‘The Rules’, sets the scene for what is about to come, a blisteringly fast paced rock n roll show.

Danko’s last album ‘Fire Music’ is well represented here, ‘Do You Wanna Rock’, ‘Gonna Be A Fight Tonight’, ‘Watch You Slide’, and a brilliant version of ‘The Twisting Knife’ prove that this latest album is just as good as anything he has done before, with the rest of the set mainly being made up of the strongest tracks from his previous albums, sort of a greatest hits tour, and one that works great at festivals.

“Sugar High” is very well received, the crowd are really enjoying Danko’s larger than life on stage persona, but it is the heavier songs like “The Twisting Knife”, “Invisible”, “Gonna Be A Fight Tonight”, “Had Enough”, that really get this predominantly metal crowd going.

Set closer “Bring On The Mountain (Become The Mountain)” with its punk inspired riff really get the crowd going, a name check of dead rock musicians in the middle brings great cheers from Wacken’s crowd, a great way to end the set.

There are a couple of oddities though; the one weak spot is the boringly repetitive “Legs”. I have never liked this song, it doesn’t go anywhere, and do we need telling that it’s about women’s legs about 50 times?  The other oddity is that the only other song played that day was “Active Volcanoes,” yet this is omitted on this release. Very strange.

The DVD & Blu-Ray editions will include a track-by-track commentary, an exclusive backstage interview and the spoken word performance from the 2012 Wacken Festival as bonus material.

Available on:

CD & DVD

Blu-Ray & CD

2LP + download card

2LP Special Edition, incl. download card & hand signed 7” photo card

Digital audio / digital video