Last March 17th, at a sold-out RCA Club, in Lisbon, stoner rock fans gathered for a night of heavy riffs, set to be delivered by the Greek powerhouses 1000mods and the highly energetic trio Frenzee, as part of the former’s “Cheat Death Across Europe” tour.
Hailing from Australia, but based in Greece, Frenzee brought a heavy dose of punk rock to RCA Club, bringing to the stage their raw intensity and unapologetic attitude. With the venue half full, the band kicked off the set with 100ºC, the opener for their most recent record, “What’s Wrong With Me”. As the show continued with Say It and Sane to Insane from the trio’s self-titled EP, as well as the song Pink Tax, the first moshpits began to take form. With Frenzee’s blend of classic punk aggression and groovy breakdowns, paired with Apollonia’s ‘in your face’ performance, it’s kind of hard to simply stay put. Fear No Fear, Fire in My Gut and Rushed quickly followed, and by then, with a packed room, the band’s infectious energy and commanding stage presence had completely taken over the crowd. And as if the show was not being explosive enough, Apollonia stepped down from the stage during the song Frenzy to share her unorthodox dance moves closer to the crowdlater returning to her bandmates side for the two final songs, What’s Wrong with Me and Infection. Once again, Frenzee delivered a remarkable and consistent performance throughout the whole set, and a great support for the headliners, as they were two years ago at Hardclub
Celebrating nearly two decades of an enduring stoner rock journey, 1000mods returned to Portugal for the fourth consecutive time, after two appearances at Sonicblast, and a sold-out show at Porto’s own Hard Club. This time, they are here to present their brand-new record, Cheat Death. Starting things off with “Road To Burn”, one of the bangers from the incredible Super Van Vacation, the deep, down-tuned Doom riffs instantly sparked a synchronized headbang throughout the crowd, with nearly everyone joining in to sing-along. While the notes from the first song were still echoing through the room, 1000mods immediately kicked up the pace, jumping into “Electric Carve”. In an instant, a huge moshpit was formed in the middle of the room and remained active until the end of the show. “Overthrown”, “Claws” and “Cheat Death”, the single and title-track of the new record, were quickly followed by “Warped” and “Götzen Hammer”. On the latter, Frenzee’s frontwoman Appolonia jumped on stage to help with the vocals. For the finale, the Greeks had saved three fan favourites. – the always fun to sing-along “Low”, the heavy as fuck “El Rollito”, and for last, what already is a stoner classic, the mighty “Vidage”. A true hymn for the genre, this last song turned the whole room into humming the guitar notes, before entering in a never-ending spree of crowdsurfing. The band’s set was shorter than other shows on the same tour, mainly due to the fact that vocalist Dani G was ill. It was noticeable right at the beginning during the vocals for the aforementioned “Eletric Carve”, before which Dani adressed the crowd and apologised for not being able to perform at 100%. Nevertheless, he powered through the whole set with the upmost professionalism, not missing a note on his bass guitar, and the few times that the voice failed, the crowd made up for it by joining in, with all the lyrics memorized. This is what a 1000mods concert is about. It’s a communion. A big stoner rock party.
Words by Diogo Bugalho
Photos by Filipe Silva
