10-06-2009 Papa Roach

Supports: Dear Superstar, Buckcherry; Venue: Modernes, Bremen (Germany)
By: Nina Mende

I have never been to Bremen before – as far as I can remember, so it was quite nice to be there for once although I didn’t get to see much of the town at all. But the people were all nice. That was not the reason why I went there though; the reason was a band that released their new album just this year three years after the last one which was called “Paramour Session”. Yes, I am talking about Papa Roach.

It was a sold out show at Modernes in Bremen with strict ID control. You had to be over 16 to get in, quite some kids weren’t though. But the venue was still very very crowded. As I was in the pit it somehow felt like Electric Ballroom in London. The stage was very high and the venue had an amazing sound, even when watching from the sides of the stage. It said everywhere that begin was at 8pm, but obviously it wasn’t. So it happened that many people missed the first opening act Dear Superstar. Me included. I saw them running around in the venue and the faces look terribly familiar, but I can’t recall seeing them on stage. Too bad. But well, some day I will get to see them.

So well, missed the first opener, but I was in time for the second one: Buckcherry. Buckcherry is a Grammy-nominated Los Angeles, California hard rock band formed in 1995. The band released two albums, their self-titled debut in 1999 and 2001’s Time Bomb, before dissolving in the summer of 2002. In 2005, lead vocalist Josh Todd and lead guitarist Keith Nelson formed a new band using the Buckcherry moniker and released a new album on April 16, 2006 entitled 15, which contained Buckcherry’s biggest crossover hits to date, “Crazy Bitch” and the band’s first Hot 100 top ten hit, “Sorry”. Their fourth album was released in October 2008, and was entitled Black Butterfly. And now they were here on tour with Papa Roach. Many people in the audience seemed to know the songs of them and sang along. Buckcherry’s music was country and rock combined. They rocked on stage, the singer jumped around a lot and played with the audience. Everything he wanted them to do, they did. Buckcherry is a nice band and was great to see.

Here is what they played:
Tired of you
Next to You
Broken Glass
Rose
Lit it Up
Talk To Me
Rescue Me
Sorry
Crazy Bitch

Now it was time for the headliner. The changeover took about half an hour and the cheering was loud as the backdrop got revealed. Papa Roach is a four-piece hard rock band from Vacaville, California. They broke into the mainstream with their 3x platinum major-label debut album Infest (2000) but were originally founded in 1993. As the guys entered the stage — or actually already as the lights went off – the audience cheered big time, shouting the bands’ name and went crazy. Totally insane it got as they began with the first song. Coby was jumping around like hell. I know I say quite often that artists give their everything, but Papa Roach topped everything. So Coby was soaked in sweat already during the first song. Since I was standing “underneath him” in the pit – the stage was very high – he was dripping on me when standing right in front of me. Jerry (guitar) and Tobin (bass) had some sort of platforms to jump on and perform which they did quite often. With Coby moving around the entire time from side to side he used them as well. Jerry and Tobin were moving just as much, rocking the hell out of Bremen and the fans went along. For one song Coby went straight through the audience, during another song he just went down to the pit. The guys played with and to everybody of their fans and reacting on all things thrown on stage like the bra, the hat and the carnival horns. The audience thanked with even more applause and doing everything the guys demanded. Like the wall of death or the sitting down and jumping up. The guys played songs of all albums including “Hollywood Whore”, “Scars”, “Last Resort”, “Broken Home”, “Almost Told You That I Loved You”, “She Loves Me Not”, “Crash”, “Lifelines”, “Never Enough”, “Change or Die”, “Between Angels and Insects”, “Dead Cell”, “Had Enough” and many more. The show lasted for more than an hour. Coby threw water bottles in the audience or just splattered the water all over the front row, and the Californian guys never forgot to say thank you. After every song they thanked their fans for everything, for making this all possible and for supporting music and such. It was just amazing how powerful Papa Roach shows always are, and how much they are loved by their fans. After they had left the stage the audience demanded an encore, and that extremely loud. So the band returned and played some more songs until it was completely over. Too bad, it could have lasted a little longer. The four guys came together in the center of the stage and bowed thanking for everything and then left for good. Papa Roach is one of the best live bands in my opinion and I love seeing them, time and time again.