Whenever I go to a show at Tampere-Talo the event appears as elevated and grand already simply because of the locations. The setting of Tampere’s music hall gives an added sense of importance to what ever show it hosts, somehow.
At first glance The Rock Orchestra appears like it would have a rather limited target audience, but upon closer inspection it seems like this concept works for a wide variety of people. Just as the majority of the shows of this tour, Tampere-Talo’s big auditorium is filled up well with a crowed of all ages. And that even though Tampere is in the lucky position that The Rock Orchestra will be back here already again in August. If you missed it this time around, you might wanna give it a go then.

The show lasts approximately one hour 45 minutes, including a 15-minute break. And it starts off with a storm, quite literally. The first four songs are completely instrumental, but it’s not missing anything, as all the musicians in this group have a lot of personality and charisma, so they can seemingly easily channel the crowd’s attention.

The first vocalist of the evening is Iris (Souto) with a great, energetic performance of ‘Dream On‘. After ‘Stairway‘, which is again completely instrumental, we meet the other two singers of the evening, Mitchel Emms and Frida Dahlgren. They perform ‘No One Knows‘ together, with Frida mostly taking the role of backing vocals while Mitchel passionately takes over the majority of the vocals. This part of the performance seems surprisingly happy and light-hearted, with the two of them dancing over the stage. 

The first half of the set finishes with some absolute classics, including ‘Bring Me To Life‘ by Evanescence, which Iris and Mitchel perform as a duet. In Iris‘ words “one of the most beautiful metal ballads ever written”. As soon as the last notes of System of a Down‘s ‘Toxicity‘ have been played, the crowd storms out into the lobby to get some refreshments. It always fascinates me how fast and efficient Finns can leave a place as soon as the music stops.

The second half starts a little bit softer, with ‘Für Elise’ before going back to full blast during ‘The Black Parade‘ by My Chemical Romance, where especially flutist/saxophonist Korey Riker stood out. The set continues with ‘Nothing Else Matters‘ from Metallica and ‘Tainted Love‘ by Soft Cell. The energy turns up even more during Motörhead‘s ‘Ace Of Spades‘ where vocalist Mitchel Emms runs and jumps all over the stage.

For ‘Zombie‘ Iris is encouraging us, the crowd, to sing along if we know the words. I guess I wasn’t the only one who had some reservations about actually doing this though, as the crowd remained rather quiet. Something about the fancy setting of a proper music hall just made me feel like my off-key singing just wasn’t appropriate. The show then finishes off with the explicit version of ‘Killing in the Name Of‘ by Rage Against the Machine with all three singer on stage at the same time. For this, the crowd was told to stand up, and these instructions were happily followed. After the usual spiel of the band leaving the stage and then returning just moments later, we still get ‘Enter Sandman‘ as an encore. Then with a final bow, the show is over.

I imagine I will be back to this show again sometime, as I enjoyed this experience very much.