March 6th, 2011
Omaha, Nebraska
The Waiting RoomTonight was going to be an amazing show. Local favorites Cursed By Moonlight and Army of In Between prepped the sold out crowd. Actually, close to 350 tickets were sold for tonight’s show, causing a near bursting capacity.
Female fronted Cursed By Moonlight did a great job with their 20 set. They pulled in the crowd from every corner and blew us away with a rock remake of the Ghostbusters’ theme.
Dubbed as an avant-garde fusion of industrial, metal, and horror film score, Army Of In Between’s aural assualt had shacken the crowd to it’s very core. Crowd interaction was kept to a minimum and served to expand the dark mystique of the band.
Up until tonight, I wasn’t aware HuG had downsized to a two piece. With Vas on bass guitar and Loopy on lead guitar, HuG walked on stage to a thunderous approval of the crowd. “Overture” marked the band’s reintroduction to Omaha and set the tone of their set. Vas and Loopy skipped around like stage like … well … like Hansel and Gretel on their way to the Witch’s candy house. Thier set was heavy with tracks off their most recent release, 2012: Zwanzig Zwolf, mixed perfectly against the heaviest tracks from Scheissmessiah and Uber Alles. Loopy would step to the very edge of the stage and the fans would rush the stage for the chance to even touch his guitar.
Through out the evening, Loopy would tease the crowd, grabbing a beer off the stage, take a big gulp and let the rest spill down his chin and on to the crowd. The fans loved every minute of the attention and gave back to Vas and Loopy every ounce of aggression and enjoyment they had. Being a duo now, drum and keys tracks were prerecorded and hindered some of the crowd interaction though out their set. “Oh my Heaven’s Omaha. I don’t even remember the last time we played for you,” Vas proclaimed in her uber German accent. “I think its been 816,435,953 years and 15 days since the last time we were here,” Vas told the crowd before pummeling us with “Third Reich From The Sun”. It felt like longer. I personally haven’t seen HuG since 1997 and this band has grown leaps and bounds in the past 14 years.
HuG delievered a blistering 45 minute set comprised of tracks from their three most recent albums. As much as I’d have loved to hear tracks from their debut and sophomore release, those tracks come from a different life for Vas and Loopy.
To end their 45 minute set, Loopy dared to crowd surf while Vas danced around like the NYC club kid I imagine she was. KC and The Sunshine Band’s “Get Down Tonight” played the band off stage.
Setlist;
overture (intro)
kaizerreich
hail to the darkside
fikk dich mit fire
bavarian bierhaus blood
prost!
third reich from the sun
#1 in Deutschland
komm zu uns
ss death star supergalactik
sternkrieg
fukkenuber death party