After a lame comeback in 2003, legendary, originally New York-based metal veterans PRONG powerfully crank up with their current release Power Of The Damager. A great record that goes much back to the roots and almost matches the band’s most successful and groundbreaking release Beg To Differ. Old fans are thrilled but new ones hard to find. While Tommy Victor primarily was in the spotlights with Ministry, PRONG was more or less vegetating in shadows. Nevertheless, when it came to the European tour announcement I was much excited and so were many fans ;) First tour reports lowered my expectations since they spoke of just moderate appearance of attendees. But… when arriving at Essen’s Turock I was comfortably surprised: Friday evening and the party got going! A long queue of fans with hopeful faces. Yessss! That’s the way it has to be!
But… before it all got started, some confusion was to struggle thru first…

Um… ok, the replacement (Demia) of the original support band (October Falls) has cancelled this show and got replaced by CAUSE FOR CONFUSION. Funny name, isn’t it? Especially at tonight’s confusions ;) Never heard of this band actually… Second one in league is MOTORJESUS, a band I saw performing live 3 weeks ago, where they rocked down everything.

:: pics ::

According to reports, Tommy Victor didn’t doing that well and organizational problems pushed back the shows (and my interview with Tommy, he eventually did himself) for an half hour. No problem, enough time left to say hello to friends and to get beer. I didn’t have to drive this evening… ;)

:. CAUSE FOR CONFUSION ~ kicked off at eight and delivered a half hour of aggressive modern metal in a smoke/shadow battle. It all sounded much more powerful and more asskicking as on their website player, especially, since the singing wasn’t too much in the foreground. I guess, these guys got spontaneous on the bill via their hometown mates Motorjesus. However, CAUSE FOR CONFUSION have a debut record out entitled Days Of Confusion where they played 4 of their seven songs from.
Setlist: Enemies, Before You Die, Fallen Angel, Never, Lose, Believe, I Want You

:. MOTORJESUS ~ I unfortunately gad to ignore for the time being. It was interview time, and yes, I had a really nice talking ;) For the last quarter I returned and behold! The Turock club was running mad, people already freakin’ out! Unbelievable! Many fans stood on the stage and wanted to dive or were just raising fists and partying onstage. Singer Guido was blown away and could hardly grasp what was going on ;) I knew that the MOTORJESUS guys were quite nervous, because their label people and festival organizers were announced to “examine” the cats for future bookings. I’m sure they are now deeply convinced about the band’s live qualities ;) Yeah, it was a real pleasure to watch these gents rockin’ the stage. And Guido even kept on heating up the crowd. The Turock turned into a cauldron. Ah, I love this band! Rock’n’Roll till death. MOTORJESUS should support Warrior Soul, added by Gorilla Monsoon… hehehe… THAT would be a killer package! Anyways, fucking great show!
Setlist: Dirty Pounding Gasoline, Legion Of Rock, Deathrider, Destroyer, Distortion Sleep, The Howling, Return Of The Demons, A New War

:. PRONG ~ made expectations skyrocketing… and couldn’t master them in the beginning. Seems like Tommy, Monte and Aaron needed some time to warm up on stage, because the entrance with Bad Fall and No Justice was kind of unwieldy. Nevermind, third song was Rude Awakening shooting us back to the glory times. From this moment on PRONG did master its audience. People were still heated up and started to freak out again. PRONG downright absorbed the energy and shot one classics after the other into the crowd. Of course, in between songs from Power Of The Damager got played too, but generally speaking it was an excellent trip through the entire history back to the very first days and the first record with Disbelief and Freezer Burn. Criminy! I wasn’t even 20 at that time… ;) Ok, the older fans were blissfully grinning, while the youngsters still practiced crowdsurfing. PRONG got likewise thrilled by the response and its members were grinning like a Cheshire cat, bubbling over with energy and spirit. The little big and much charismatic Tommy (oh, and there I see them drooling again… *g*) absolutely enjoyed this situation, told jokes and had fun among the fans.
Setlist: Bad Fall, No Justice, Rude Awakening, Looking For Them, Another Wordly Device, Third Option, The Banishment, Broken Peace, All Knowing Force, For Dear Life, Messages Inside Of Me, Beg To Differ, Irrelevant Thoughts, Cut-Rate, Worst Of It, Spirit Guide, Whose Fist Is This Anyway?, Snap Your Fingers Snap Your Neck, Power Of The Damager // Dark Signs, Disbelief, Freezer Burn, Unconditional, Prove You Wrong

YES! That was a great evening! Indeed! My very first show in the new year and already the first highlight :) I love it! Too bad I had to be up early next morning, because it was Friday, party night at Turock. Would have loved to stay there with friends… Anyways, great show, did I tell ya? ;)