To warm up the crowd, Blind Channel brought in Arttu Lindeman, a Finnish YouTube rap star that with his recent work turned towards the realm of rock. He was honestly a perfect opener for Blind Channel with his energetic performance that at times reminded me a bit of how Yungblud runs about on stage. And with the very young crowd that was there for the show, he was clearly really popular, having plenty of mouths singing along to the Finnish lyrics of his tracks at the top of their lungs.

And then for the main event. Blind Channel went all out with their stage production now that they had a big arena stage to fill with big screens in the back, the sampler/keyboards and drums on a tall riser, extra lighting and plenty of pyro to keep the crowd toasty in the usually rather chill Ice Hall. They hyped up the crowd with some intro tracks and a short sermon by TV celebrity Sami Kuronen dressed up in a dark priest outfit for the occasion. And the mass he introduced us to was a celebration of all that Blind Channel has worked towards for years and their brand of alternative metal or “Violent Pop” as they’ve described it before.

Not too surprising, they kicked off their set with ‘Alive or Only Burning’ and ‘We Are No Saints’ from ‘Lifestyles of the Sick & Dangerous’ that was released earlier in the year, along with some stage-engulfing amount of flames. And with this short Finnish tour being named after their latest release, almost all the tracks from it came by sprinkled throughout the set. We of course also got songs from ‘Violent Pop’ with ‘Over My Dead Body’ and ‘Died Enough For You’, from ‘Blood Brothers’ with ‘Giants‘ and ‘Scream’, some oldies with ‘Save Me’ and ‘Unforgiving‘ and as we’ve known them to do since the beginning, a couple of covers with Limp Bizkit‘s ‘Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)‘ and Anastacia‘s ‘Left Outside Alone‘. Overall, a really fun setlist, though I would have loved to see some of their old bangers live again like ‘Bullet (With Your Name On It)‘ or ‘Deja Fu‘.

Throughout the whole evening they dazzled us with their energetic performance enhanced by the stage production and some fun surprises along the way like the money confetti canons during ‘Glory For The Greed‘ and a guest appearance of Robin, often tagged as Finland’s Bieber, singing with them on ‘Bad Idea‘ made this an absolutely memorable night. And of course, similar like how it’s with a Lordi show, they closed their set with their Eurovision song ‘Dark Side‘, making the room explode one last time.

The question is now, where can they take it next to try and top this? We’ll be looking forward to see what they end up doing…