BUCKETLOADS OF HEAVEN

Finally one of the finest livebands to ever draw breath had the guts to leave their comfort zone at a magnificent Christmas show in Copenhagen

PRETTY MAIDS, Amager Bio, 4. december

Now, that's the way to do it Pretty Maids and about bloody time too: Guts and out of the comfort zone and into the fire. . .

. . . Ok, excuse my exuberance but when Pretty Maids' annual Christmas show in Copenhagen this year was the best this far, it was not least due to an inspired, daring og occasionally quite challenging setlist. Pretty Maids may well be one of the best livebands on the planet but the will to dare and experiment has too often eluded them - considering they have more than three decades of material at their disposal the band has played it safe to often and added yet more dimensions to the expression "safety junkies" setlist wise.

That changed monumentally Thursday night in front of a packed Amager Bio venue when the band hit the stage with nothing less than "Future World" and then immediately afterwards hit us with the heaviest rendition of "We Came To Rock" I've ever heard them play. From then on it got better and better thanks to a wide but largely unpredictable selection of Pretty Maids' many masterful musical maneouvres through the last 31 years. From new material like "My Soul To Take" and "Nuclear Boomerang" through well chosen classics such as a heartfelt "Eye Of The Storm" and a brutal "I.N.V.U." to the biggest and most welcome surprises this evening: "A Place In The Night" and "Never Too Late"! In my humble opinion exactly those two songs are among the very best Pretty Maids have ever written, but I've only once heard them play "A Place. . ." - 30 years old now - while I've never heard them play the 17 years old "Never Too Late".

Yeah, happy me and I was certainly not alone.

LIFE AFFIRMING
I gladly and often lecture most insistently about the very life-affirming force rock'n'roll is. At Amager Bio this fact was cemented way more effectively than I would ever be able to do it. It may have had something to do with the imminent season for men dressed in red and stuck in chimneys worldwide but no matter what, one could note that vicars across the land would probably sell their last bible for a congregation like the one Pretty Maids command. In this case the Christmas message of "goodwill to all" and love thy neighbour was complied to an extent rarely experienced in conventional churches. It probably didn't hurt though that the hymns in this case were "Clay", "Red Hot And Heavy" and "Back In Black" rather than "Silent Night" etc.

"Little Drops Of Heaven"? More like bucketloads!

So even after all these years Pretty Maids both surprise and - not least - excite. The fact that the band in a row of numbers invited Søren Andersen (Electric Guitars, Glenn Hughes a.o.) to lend two guitarplaying hands reminded us all that Maids originally were a two guitar band and Søren's contribution to the sound just underlined the fact, that it might not be such a bad idea if the band employed a rhythm guitarist again.

Anyway, as I stated earlier; this trip out of the comfort zone truly became Pretty Maids. Quite clearly the members had to concentrate a bit more than usual, and a good party actually benefits from an element of intensity. And this was a fantastic party and a late contender for "concert of the year".