First things first: For this post I decided to write a combined review of both Bad Omens shows in Cologne. Altogether I’ve been to four concerts of this tour and since there wasn’t that much of a difference between the Cologne shows (while there was still a significant difference) I decided to review those two together. I’ll also write a combined review for the other two shows because I’d probably repeat some points again and again, so instead of cluttering my blog with Bad Omens concert reviews I decided to group them.
At some point I the past I was very worried about the four concerts we had tickets for. Somehow I had feared that I might regret it after the first show. I didn’t. In fact, I am more than happy to have bought tickets for four shows because not all of them were equally good, but read more.
The venue
Oh Palladium. Yet another venue I have a hate-love-relationship with. I’ve had some great concerts there, but Palladium sure has its downsides. First of all, the parking can be a mess if you’re a too late. And this time we almost were too late both times. There are paid parkings around, but if you wanna snatch one of the free parking spots in the streets around the venue, you better be quick. We managed to get some, but it was a struggle. Several years ago at a concert somebody told us that in Cologne, the local authorities control very strictly when it comes to parking but let me tell you that apparently they don’t because we’ve seen so many horribly parked cars in no-parking-spots that I have my doubts by now. Yet, better be early and get a good free spot – or pay for parking. Because I swear you don’t want to go through the panic we went through back then when the person told us.
Generally, queuing and entry at Palladium usually work well, except that there’s not much room to queue except for the pathway and that can be very unfunny with some of the assholes playing Need for Speed Real Life in the street right in front of the venue. Other than that, not much to whine about. Inside, I like that the toilet and cloakroom are in the basement because at some venues, the queues of the bar, toilet, coat check and merch just get mixed and the halls can easily be overcrowded. I also generally like the toilet of the Palladium 😂 We didn’t use the cloakroom, so once again I can’t judge the price. But as most other big venues, Palladium is one of those that take merch cuts and force their own merch sellers on the band, so be prepared for pricey merch (not that it would matter in case of Bad Omens, because their merch is a little overpriced in general, no front. I was still dumb enough to buy the hoodie although I deemed 80€ too expensive for a hoodie.)
Speaking of overpriced, so are the drinks at Palladium. At least slightly, if you ask me. Big venues, blah blah.
There’s a balcony as well, but we were too late to get good spots there at the first show and for the second show we were early enough to get what we believed were good spots in the infield, so we didn’t go up there either. So I totally can’t judge view and sound on the balcony. But the sound in the infield is usually good. Yet, Palladium is one of these venues with pillars that will block your view if you’re standing anywhere at the sides, which makes the room a lot more narrow if you actually came to see something.
Also be prepared for massive crowd activity – I’ve never been to a show at Palladium where the moshpit wasn’t heavy. But I’ll elaborate on that a bit further on.
Poppy
I hadn’t listened to Poppy before. While streaming V.A.N. for the first time, I think Bloodmoney and I Disagree played afterwards, which hence were the only songs I knew before the gig. To my personal delight, Bloodmoney was the first song in Poppy’s set, so at least the show started with something familiar for me. But although I liked her sound in general, I didn’t get into it at the first show. There were too many sudden breaks in rhythm and style for my brain to digest and I can imagine that this was also one of the main reasons why the crowd wasn’t very responsive at first either. If you’re unfamiliar with her music, Poppy’s set might seem like an LSD trip. You can’t just vibe along and enjoy because the next best moment, there’ll be an entirely different genre of music with a different rhythm and for me, the first show was exhausting.
Thankfully, for me personally it got a lot better at the second Cologne show already, especially because I decided to listen to all songs in her setlist again at home to make myself more familiar with her. That was a good idea because at the second show, I got to enjoy her set. Poppy’s music is definitely different from Bad Omens. And special in a way, because she skips through so many different genres. I don’t think I would’ve started listening to her without having seen her live. I also don’t know if I’d ever start listening to her music more excessively, but by now I at least like all the songs from her tour set.
Except for Bloodmoney and I Disagree, her tour set included (in no particular order, just what I remember from the top of my head right now) Church Outfit, Scary Mask and Concrete. And while Concrete was such a WTF-moment for me, I’m not lying when I tell you that some of these songs have the potential to haunt you for weeks. WEEKS. I woke up humming along to Poppy songs for several days. I still do, actually.
During the Cologne shows I didn’t get a good glimpse of her stage performance though. I was simply too small. The show on Monday was a little better than on Sunday for me, but that was about it. So … all in all, at these two shows, Poppy was still a pretty average experience.
Bad Omens
After Poppy’s set, we had to wait for about 50 minutes (!) for Bad Omens to start their set. At both Cologne shows. Since those apparently were the only shows which such a weird schedule I assume that was because of the livestreams from those two shows. Those 50 minutes felt like the longest 50 minutes of my entire life. It was hot, it was tight and it was … boring. Yeah. It was honestly boring because the warmup playlist didn’t give us much to do either.
Thankfully that changed when Bad Omens entered the stage. I definitely hadn’t expected the set to start with Artificial Suicide, so at the first show we missed our chance to get into the moshpit right away. Back then I was a bit upset about that, but in hindsight I should be happy about it. At the second show, we simply skipped the moshpit for this song because I didn’t quite feel it back then. But yeah, starting with that song is a statement. And it sets a certain mood. Woahow.
All in all, the set wasn’t much different from their tour last year, which was a bit of a downside for me personally. In contrast to last year, they added Broken Youth and, very obviously, V.A.N., and there was a remix of Miracle used during a little break, but that was about it (and much to my own disliking they kicked out Mercy). So there weren’t any big surprises in the set (except for maybe Broken Youth, I honestly hadn’t expected this one). I mean … yeah, they didn’t publish any new songs except for V.A.N. in between, but it’s not like they’re not more or less neglecting the existence of their very first album. In short: I am just bummed that I didn’t get to hear Malice. And I definitely do not need Bad Decisions, although I get why that a calmer song might give the crowd a nice break. I’m just not a big fan of this song (or their calmer songs on The Death Of Peace Of Mind in general, I admit that I skip them almost every time they start playing on my car. Taking that into consideration … it could’ve even been worse I guess. My dislike for this song is big enough that my girlfriend made sure to text me during this song when we lost each other at the second Cologne show because she knew I was most likely to check my phone during Bad Decisions.
However, it was still enough of a different experience in comparison to last year as this time, they had a production and pyros and it was all a lot bigger and … more professional I guess. Not that I got to see much of it because at the first Cologne show I simply had way too many tall people in front of me and at the second Cologne show I was so stuck in the moshpit that I almost died. (Quite literally, because while opening the pit someone almost strangled me by pushing their elbow into my throat). The pyros were cool and I think whatever happened on screen fit the band’s vibe, yet I admit that I wasn’t the biggest fan of it. Let’s say: I’ve seen better. What I liked best though was that short bit that looked like it was taken out of a video game. As I say: It fit the vibe.
Speaking of moshpit, being stuck in there was a massive downside. At show one I only went into the pit for Dethrone because it was the last song and I was like „fuck it“ and also it was a circle pit and I thought I could do that despite not having fully recovered from my cold. And the Sunday Dethrone circle pit was fine and fun. On Monday, I got into the pit much earlier. I don’t remember when though, might’ve been during Glass Houses, but once I was in I could hardly get out because some of the people in the crowd decided to be assholes and while I was very obviously actively trying to get out to take a breath and just get a short rest, there were people pushing me back in because they felt disturbed by my presence. And guys, I get that you want to enjoy the concert in peace and that it was getting tight, but when someone is trying to get out of the moshpit, you let them out! DON’T PUSH THEM BACK IN! That’s fucking dangerous because people might be at their limits.
Also, the pit on Monday in itself was absolutely horrible. Most of the time it didn’t feel like a moshpit. It felt like being stuck in a wave that presses you back and forth. There was no room to push people around, no room to move or dance, just being washed back and forth while being pressed against sweaty bodies. Yes, I do have moshpit experience, years of it actually. This was not a good moshpit. Circle pits didn’t work either on Monday. It genuinely wasn’t fun. That was one of the worst moshpits I’d been in in the last two years.
While after Sunday I was excited for the Monday concert, I asked myself on Tuesday if I had had fun altogether on Monday and the answer was No, but that wasn’t the band’s fault. It was a mix of the crowd and … bad decisions. I guess. After the show I was so exhausted and annoyed that I sat down on the floor and started crying. And all in all I was very happy that I had tickets for two more shows because if the Cologne shows had been my only Bad Omens live experience this year, I wouldn’t have been very happy.
Concerning Monday, I do not even remember much of the concert except for being pushed around, feeling terribly exhausted, almost getting strangled and that one dude with super cool multicoloured hair who I warned of an arriving crowdsurfer.
But you know what? That’s what you get when you get into a moshpit at Palladium.