Troels Abrahamsen was in top form, especially on 'Built To Fail', and it's a shame that none of the new songs take his voice to the edge like some of the older ones do, because that's where he's at his best and most earnest. Of course, some of the new tunes couldn't help but turn down the intensity a little bit, but they were spread cleverly across the set, and some, like 'Fell Into Place', which is dreadful on the record, actually grew a bit on me. Others, such as 'Spun' and 'Already Ready' were real party killers. I was kind of surprised that the band shot off both 'Built To Fail', 'Blackout' and a too slow version of 'Can You See Anything' pretty early in the set, leaving the latter part dominated by older fan favorites such as 'It's A Test' and the reborn 'I Brought The BBQ'. 'Spit It Out' was a bit of an anticlimactic encore, and is it really necessary to play both that and 'Duck, Hush and Be Still'? They're both beautiful tunes, but I could have sacrificed one of them for 'From A To B' or 'Shake', for example.
Nevertheless, people went crazy, and I was once again reminded just how amazing some of the tunes work live - powerful songs like 'Digits', 'Unite' and 'You Say Yes, I Say Yes'. It did however seem as though many in the audience came to hear the select few songs they knew from the radio, which is a matter of course when a once underground band makes strides into the mainstream. That also brings drunken sinks with little concert etiquette, whose loud and out of sync clapping you have to decipher the music through. But that's a price, and a fair one, to pay when quality music makes it big now and then!
So all in all, VETO haven't been excommunicated just yet, they're still able to throw a party like in the old days - just that it's now with a few breathers here and there. I guess we all grow old?
