The Biggest Balls Of Them All! Udo Dirkschnieder Brings His Top Game To The Brass Monkey October 3rd

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Beating metal hearts!
No opening act!
Maybe Wattie from THE EXPLOITED was right after all about the inefficiency of Canadian customs?

It's been quite the difference between 2018 when UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER, the powerful voice of Teutonic trad metallers ACCEPT, had commanded a vast army of local and international opening acts so great that the stage could barely accommodate them, and this past October when the legend found himself as both the sole and the main attraction. According to his manager, who'd remembered me from that fateful interview that year, the initial opening band MIDNIGHT HELLION from New Jersey were prevented from entering the country along with their undeclared merchandise following a show in Detroit the night before; UDO and his crew, by comparison, had left their merch back at US customs to be inspected and were allowed into the country while their merch was not.

Yet, despite the otherwise merch availability fumble, UDO and his team brought in a backup plan of powerfully effective - and balls-out - heavy fucking metal. Featuring the band behind the man - specifically Andrey Smirnov (guitars), Fabian Dee Dammers (guitars), UDO's former ACCEPT bandmate Peter Baltes (bass) and current EXHUMED drummer Mattias Kassner temporarily subbing for UDO's son Sven - UDO put on a 2-hour performance featuring material from both his time in ACCEPT and his own solo career. With his own latest album Touchdown, inspired by a visit to an American-style sports bar in Sao Paulo, Brazil during a recent Latin American tour, to promote, UDO put on a performance brimming with enthusiasm and lots of sports-related metaphors. Opening with "Isolation Man" (which as the sudden sole band on the bill being easily relatable), the whole band were in full form that night. The setlist was a varied engagement of classic and lesser-known songs, ranging from "Metal Machine" and "I Give As Good As I Get" to "The Wrong Side Of Midnight" and the completely non-NEIL YOUNG-sounding banger "Heart Of Gold". The latest tracks including the awesomely melodic "Fight For The Right" and "Touchdown" were classic-sounding UDO in tone and spirit and merged nicely amongst the legendary ACCEPT numbers such as "Midnight Mover", the thrashy punch of "Fast As A Shark" and the anthemic bombast of "Balls To The Wall". Indeed, Peter Baltes' history with UDO goes back a good four decades plus and it was great to see how comfortable he appeared to be in relishing in the chance moment to be playing with his colleague once again on both the classic ACCEPT numbers and UDO's solo material. And by the time the closing chant of "Balls to the WAAALL, man!" echoed throughout the Monkey's tenement halls, both the band and the audience were equally sapped, the prospect of anything close to a rumored meet-and-greet, while quickly nixed, was also understandable given the length of the journey the band and its crew had taken to get to Ottawa to put on the most well-timed performance of the year. And when it came to facing the fight for the right to play to several generations of his Ottawa fanbase that night, UDO as a collective unit literally gave as good as they got and then some. And that's a win-win situation for everyone at the Monkey involved on that night.

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Setlist:

• "Isolation Man"
• "Break The Rules"
• "Forever Free"
• "Metal Machine"
• "Midnight Mover" (ACCEPT cover)
• "The Wrong Side Of Midnight"
• "Fight For The Right"
• "Heart Of Gold"
• "One Heart, One Soul"
• "Touchdown"