Airbourne Treated Gröna Lund to Beer, Sweat and Rock'n'Roll

Australian band Airbourne are in the final stretch of their Gutsy Tour. In February, the tour reached B-K in Stockholm, where I saw the band for the second time after Skogsröjet 2023. Now they're back in Stockholm – this time at Gröna Lund and, moreover, the day before the release of the band's self-titled new album Airbourne.

When the intro music dies down, the drummer comes on first and starts laying down the beat. Then the guitarist joins in and begins to play the riff, followed by the bassist. Last comes frontman Joel O’Keeffe. Bare-chested and with his guitar at the ready, he rushes onto the stage. “GUTSY” kicks things off – one of the tracks from the upcoming album.

O'Keeffe's hair is already soaking wet, and the explanation is simple. Before the songs, he pours water out of a bottle onto his head and then shakes it off over the stage while headbanging. If you're at the front at an Airbourne concert, you simply have to expect a certain risk of splashing.

A bit into “GUTSY,” a small mosh pit has already started, and it stays throughout the concert, albeit with varying intensity.

During “Raise the Flag,” one of Airbourne's classic live moments takes place. Joel leaves the stage and lets himself be carried out through the crowd on the shoulders of a crew member. There he continues his guitar solo while, according to established Airbourne tradition, smashing a beer can against his head. Beer sprays and the crowd loves it. It's all for show, of course, and one Airbourne has done many times before. But standing in the midst of it, it's hard to resist. Airbourne don't need to come up with something new every night. They do their thing with such energy that it still works, no matter how familiar it may be.

Besides frontman Joel O’Keeffe, Airbourne consists of his brother and drummer Ryan O'Keeffe, who drives the songs forward with hard and straightforward drumming, Justin Street on bass, and guitarist Brett Tyrrell, who is celebrating his birthday on this very day. The audience treats him to a “Big scream” at Joel's prompting.

Airbourne operate within a fairly narrow musical range, but they master it all the better. The riffs are simple, the choruses built to be shouted back, and the band rarely leaves a long enough break for the pulse to drop.

Before “Hungry,” O'Keeffe recounts the band's journey from their first gigs back home in Australia. First, they played for one person in their hometown Warrnambool, then for two in Melbourne, and after that three in Sydney. Now they're here before us at Gröna Lund. They've kept on playing because they love it, and somewhere along the way the dream came true.

Joel has noticed the mosh pit that flares up now and then and before “Breakin' Outta Hell,” he urges the crowd to spread out and give it more space. As the song starts, more and more people join in to run around and push each other.

Then comes “Live It Up,” and here Airbourne are definitely determined to turn it up one more notch. Ryan O'Keeffe cranks up the mechanical air raid siren and shouts “Come on, Sthlm!” Joel kneels with his guitar and plays the intro while the crowd claps along. In front of the stage, the mosh pit is crouching, waiting. When the song takes off, it explodes into the night’s biggest mosh pit.

During the song, Lemmy's Bar is rolled out. Joel encourages the audience to sit on each other's shoulders, whereupon he starts throwing beer out over the crowd aiming for those who have climbed up on their friends’ shoulders. Half-full plastic cups are tossed far out into the audience with surprisingly good precision. The cups sail through the air with most of the contents still inside – at least until someone manages to catch them. When someone makes a catch, they get a thumbs up from O’Keeffe. It may not sound like the height of artistry, but the technique is impressive. It’s silly, fun, and very much Airbourne.

“Alive After Death (Last Plane Out)” is introduced by O'Keeffe with a tribute to Motörhead and Lemmy. “We keep them alive when we listen to them. We keep Lemmy alive,” he says. It's a brief and sincere moment in an otherwise intense show.

The show ends with “Runnin' Wild” and before it, O'Keeffe takes the opportunity to single out the guitarist, who has his birthday, and then the tour crew. He points toward the speakers and the lights behind the band, noting that they themselves are really just running around on stage and not tough enough to do the crew's job.

After the song, he reminds everyone that the new album comes out the next day and promises that Airbourne will return to Sweden. Then he sums up the evening with a message that fits the band quite well: as long as they live and the audience lives, rock'n'roll will never die.

It was exactly the full-on blast one could wish for ahead of tomorrow’s album release. And for those of us who want our rock'n'roll served raw, sweaty, and soaked in beer, it was exactly the punch in the face we needed.