PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
On the Friday night at Hammerfest (well Saturday morning really as it was 1.30am), there was only one band who could follow the awesomely fun set from Evil Scarecrow – that band is the band that first put the fun into metal, Lawnmower Deth. Since reforming a few years ago they’ve limited themselves to a few rare gigs and appearances at festivals – Download, Bloodstock and now Hammerfest. While talking to the band earlier they’d expressed a hope that the audience would be fairly drunk by the time they came on – well thats pretty much guaranteed at this time of night at a metal festival, but in reality they don’t need a drunk crowd to get everyone having fun.
At this time of night when people are tired and drunk, the sheer craziness of Lawnmower Deth goes down a storm. They actually have a big crowd packing out the second stage – which is unusual for bands in this time slot, and the crowd are expecting a good time, which is exactly what they get. With classic song titles including “Drink to be sick”, “weebles wobble” and “Sumo rabbit” you know these guys dont take themselves too seriously.
Musically they’re heavy and are far better than they claim to be, and frontman Peter Lee is superb at entertaining the crowd between songs as well as during them. SOme of the songs – “Nothingness” in particular are fairly short – well extremely short actually – Nothingness is probably less than 10 seconds. “Commit suicide” is barely any longer.
Sumo Rabbit. What the hell can you say about this. Starting by getting the crowd to sing happy birthday to a man in a rabbit outfit they then launch into the song Sumo Rabbit as the giant rabbit hops around the stage, wiggles its bottom at the crowd, and generally entertaining people. What deranged mind came up with this idea? – its crazy but it works.
One of the most entertaining parts of the set is when they bring out Satans trampoline. Normally they get someone from the audience to bounce up and down on the mini trampoline to see how many times they can bounce during the song. Tonight though we’ve been promised a “celebrity” to do it. The celebrity in question turns out to be none other than Brother Dimitri Pain from Evil Scarecrow who despite nearly falling off several times, manages a vomit inducing 300+ bounces in the duration of the song.
Due to overrunning slightly the band had to cut three songs from their set, but still managed to include their cover of the Kim Wilde song Kids in America. I bet she never heard it sound quite like this !
“F**k off” brought the set and a great night to an end. Thoroughly entertaining – I can’t wait to see them again (they’re playing London in December for anyone who’s interested).
Setlist:
Spook perv
Jaggered
Dotty Fords
Drink to be sick
Sheepus dipus
Did you spill my pint
Flying killer cobblers
Nothingness
Commit suicide
Sumo rabbit
Icky ficky
Cobwoman
ooooh crikey
Punk as f**k
Satans ha ha ha ha
F.A.T
Urban
Maim mower maim
7th choch
Weebles wobble
Watch out cletus
Kids in america
f**k off
