19/02/2010 @ Salamandra 1, Barcelona 21/02/2010 @ Sala Heineken, Madrid

It's really amazing how a band can deliver tour after tour. I've seen a lot of OVERKILL concerts over the years and it perhaps seem unnecessary to travel all across Europe to catch them for the 15th time or so on the winter tour when they will play a couple of hundred meters from my house at one of their festival dates. It's always a pleasure to see OVERKILL though so, I wouldn't have had it any other way than to see them now.

Salamandra 1 was about half filled, at the point where you can move around in the venue, rock out with friends, go grab a beer but it's still not empty. A really pleasant atmosphere I must say but, one thing that surprised me both in Barcelona and Madrid was that it got almost dead silent between the songs. No shouting or cheering what so ever. And in Madrid, to the opposite of Barcelona, Sala Heineken was absolutely PACKED. In Madrid the response from the crowd was crazy during the songs, crowd surfing, moshing and screaming. Hell, from time to time it was like at a 50.000 people arena at the highlight of an IRON MAIDEN concert, soccer quire screaming and singing along to the solos. That I've never seen at an OVERKILL concert before, very cool and they absolutely deserve a response like that. But then again, between the songs it was as quiet you could hear a needle fall to the floor. Well, not when it was time for encore though, then everyone screamed at the top of their voices.

This version of the band is hotter than ever before. They're extremely tight and seem to have a lot of fun playing. That shines through both in the music and live performance. Sure, Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth has always been a very charismatic frontman with a very special style and moves only he can pull off. Predictable nowadays you might say but, that's the way it is with all vocalists with a strapping character. The rest of the bunch completes each other. Dynamic guitar duo Dave Linsk and Derek Tailer together with drummer Ron Lipnicki creates a solid ground for D.D. Verni's very special bass sound. It all sounds OVERKILL but it still sounds very new, fresh and healthy.

One more thing that's really nice with this band is that they do alter the songs from tour to tour. Sure, you can always count on a few from the most recent release, some from later years and a whole bunch of classic hits. The thing though is that they almost never play the same old hits from tour to tour. "Gasoline Dream" from "W.F.O" was a nice surprise I must say. Of course, OVERKILL served a few from latest release, brand new "Ironbound" which by the way is a killer album. Besides the title track the concerts opened with "The Green And Black" and towards the end "Bring Me The Night" appeared in the set.

A very tasteful setlist but any OVERKILL concert feels too short, no matter what they do. There are songs though, "Necroshine" for example that extremely heavy and raw song was one of the best in the set in Barcelona to my surprise. Normally that one isn't one of my favorites. In Madrid though, it was back as it uses to be, the song was not one of my favorite in the set. It's just such a song where it takes so little to go either way. It was just played a little faster in Madrid and it just lost all what's cool about it. Apart from that everything was perfect though. So next year or next tour I will absolutely be there again because I know it will be some amazing concerts again.

OVERKILL setlist:

1. "The Green And Black"
2. "Rotten To The Core"
3. "Wrecking Crew"
4. "Hello From The Gutter"
5. "Feel The Fire"
6. "Ironbound"
7. "In Union We Stand"
8. "Bare Bones"
9. "Gasoline Dream"
10. "Overkill"
11. "Bring Me The Night"
12. "Elimination"
13. "Necroshine"
14. "Old School"
15. "Fuck You"/"Sonic Reducer"

(photos from "Ironbound" Erika)