In the recent years there’s been quite the buzz around the rockers of One Desire and that was quite noticeable with the amount of enthusiastic people already showing up for “just” the openings band. While at first the floor seemed pretty empty, as soon as the sweet notes of their music came from the speakers, it quickly filled up with people dancing to the melodies and singing along at the top of their lungs! While their brand of rock is pretty easy-going, they really managed to get the crowd to let loose. On stage, mostly vocalist/guitarist André Linman ran away with the attention with his engaging and passionate performance, while the rest mostly seemed to focus on playing their music. That doesn’t mean they didn’t seek for some connection with the crowd, with guitarist Jimmy Westerlund regularly cranking out a tasteful guitar solo right at the edge of the stage or drummer Ossi Sivula pointing and smiling at some people in the crowd. The setlist ebbed and flowed nicely between their heavier stuff and more mellow rock ballads and everything in between. Personally I like a bit more explosiveness from a band, which I ended up getting with the last track ‘Buried Alive’, but overall it was a really fun rock show and the people there really were getting more and more into it the further we got in the set. And that’s what you want of a warmup band, no?

By the time Brother Firetribe started their set with a slight delay, the venue was pretty much packed and the crowd was rearing to go. The guys came on stage, greeted their fans and kicked off without wasting any more time with ‘Rock in the City’ from their latest album ‘Feel the Burn’. There is simply no denying that this band belongs to a stage and rules it with absolute control no matter how big or small that stage is. Charismatic vocalist Pekka is of course the center of attention with a stage presence that oozes and breathes rock ‘n’ roll. But the kind of rock ‘n’ roll that hugs you and makes you feel at home, seeking constant connection with his fans with a big radiant smile, posing for phone cameras pointed at him and even taking the time to go give a hand to every person in a wheelchair posted at one side of the stage. Their new guitarist Roope cranked out some pretty sweet solos and clearly belongs completely with the band by now. The setlist had a good spread of the banging tracks of their latest album like ‘Night Drive’, ‘Chariot of Fire’ and ‘I Salute You’, and classics like ‘For Better or for Worse’, ‘I Am Rock’ and ‘Heart Full of Fire’. But no matter what song they were playing, every single one was met with loud singalongs, big smiles and cheers from the crowd. And with songs like ‘Taste of a Champion’ and ‘I’m on Fire’, how can you not leave this concert feeling recharged and uplifted? This band deserves to be in an arena where their music would shine even more… An absolute delight to see these guys on stage again, we hope to meet you again soon!