The metalheads of the north-east converged on the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen for a spectacularly intimate, and sweaty, performance from the mighty Machine Head.
The American heavy metal legends are currently on a tour of smaller Scottish venues ahead of a UK arena tour.
Next week they may be playing to the 12,500-capacity venue of Wembley Arena in London, but last night’s energy-packed rager for just a few hundred fans at the sold-out Aberdeen show will definitely be a much more memorable gig in the years to come.
With no support act, the four-piece had a whole evening to play around with an extensive two-hour set, featuring fan favourites and a selection of extremely deep cuts, as well as a handful of covers.
Machine Head’s Lemon Tree gig had fun and unpredictable vibe
The band have dubbed each performance of the Scottish section of their UK tour as Electric Happy Hour (Live) shows, as they’re inspired by the livestreams the band put on during lockdown.
Fittingly, each show has had no set setlist.
Which gave yesterday evening an extremely fun, unpredictable vibe.
Yes, going into it you were almost certain to get big hitters from the extensive Machine Head catalogue, but between each show at relatively wee Scottish venues like the Lemon Tree last night, Ironworks in Inverness, and Fat Sam’s in Dundee this evening, the list of songs is varying dramatically.
Bearded, denim-decked frontman Robb Flynn barely let the crowd calm down a moment for almost the entire night.
From the very first song, he was more than happy to encourage his very high-spirited fans to mosh, headbang and circle pit to their heart’s content, and most everyone in the venue was happy to oblige.
The constant chants of ‘Machine F***ing Head!’ before, during, and after each song kept the energy in the room at an absolute maximum consistently.
Aggressive anthems and considerate covers from Machine Head
I’ll admit it, despite loving them for years, a lot of the songs being played yesterday evening went beyond even my fandom — but that certainly didn’t stop me or everyone else who may or may not have known the words from giving it absolute laldy.
Classic hits like Davidian from the band’s debut 1994 album Burn My Eyes definitely got a lot more people belting out the lyrics at the top of their lungs, and the circle pits spinning about with sweaty moshers like a tumble dryer set to high speed.
Other tunes like Aesthetics Of Hate, Become The Firestorm, and my personal favourite Killers And Kings also attracted a healthy degree of headbanging from the black t-shirt-clad crowd.
But what’s a free flow, no hard setlist tour like without a few covers thrown in?
In fitting with their ferocious sound, Machine Head slipped in a truly hellish (in a good way!) cover of Raining Blood by thrash metal titans Slayer.
But it wasn’t all angry screaming and shouting.
Touched by this weekend’s tribute to the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins at Wembley Stadium, Robb explained how Foo’s singer Dave Grohl’s performance in memory of his friend brought him to tears.
The Machine Head cover of Everlong by the Foo’s was certainly unexpected, and provided an excellent, emotional breather in the midst of a very heavy evening at the Lemon Tree.
Surfs up for Machine Head fans at The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen
Kudos must be given to the excellent security staff at the Lemon Tree, as crowd surfing was the order of the day for the last couple of songs as fans seized their opportunities to ride the energy, and the packed-out crowd, over the front barriers.
For the last song of the night, the award-winning band blasted out Halo, from their 2007 album The Blackening.
As if there weren’t enough fans jumping up and over the crowd, skirting the ceiling of the Lemon Tree, Robb made a point of asking for more surfing action.
Plenty of fans, including myself, took the invitation with joy for a spectacular end to a very special evening.
Machine Head may be one of the biggest names in the metal music industry, but by playing some of Scotland’s smallest venues, they definitely earned a huge degree of respect from a very knackered, sweaty north-east audience last night.
Machine Head’s Electric Happy Hour tour continues at Dundee’s Fat Sam’s on Monday September 5.
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