Photo Reports
Electric Callboy has been experiencing a really explosive growth over the past couple of years, which is very noticeable if you look at how the venues on every new tour are getting bigger and bigger. For their visit to Finland on the “Tekkno Tour ’23”, the tickets were in such a high demand that they were quickly sold out and decided to add a second date, which in turn got sold out pretty fast as well. We knew that we were going to be in for quite the party, and honestly, I wanted to see how the Finnish crowd responds to a party band like Electric Callboy. On their Helsinki shows, we had to do without the support of Holding Absence, but at least we got a nice warming up by the lovely people of Future Palace.
This time the German hip-hop and pop Titans FETTES BROT have come to the end of the road (sorry, a short rock’n roll hint needs to be in here even though). After the band was founded in 1992 by Dokter Renz – Martin Vandreier, König Boris – Boris Lauterbach and Björn Beton – Björn Warns. Fame in the German hip-hop scene came with their first official album ‘Auf Einem Auge Blöd‘, released in 1995. Including ‘Nordisch By Nature‘, a hymn to the northern German region and Hamburg, which is the origin of the band. This was the first hit in a long row of hits ever since and followed by ‘Jein‘, ‘Bettina Zieh Dir Bitte Etwas An‘, ‘Da Draussen‘, ‘Emanuela‘ and many more.
After 30 years in show-biz, the band announced their upcoming end after a last tour in 2023.
We are very honoured to have been attending one of the last shows at a fully sold-out Porsche Arena in Stuttgart. Fettes Brot let the crowd escalate a very last time as described in many of their songs that often described parties and drinking beer (‘Meh’ Bier‘). Nobody at the venue stood still, and the whole venue danced, jumped and had loads of fun. With all anthems and hits presented the last time on stage, FETTES BROT have chosen to have a fabulous end of their career!
Enjoy our photo report!
Better known as singer of Leaves’ Eyes, Elina Siirala also sings in another band called Angel Nation! On their way to the Femme metal event in the Netherlands, they added an extra show at the Crossover music pub in Ghent where we attended their show. Warming-up act was Flowerleaf who came all the way from Germany, in their case, just for this one show. After the show, both bands took time to meet fans, take selfies and chat. There was not a very large crowd, which made for an intimate atmosphere as well as ample opportunity to take great photos. A sincere thank you to the gentle people of the Crossover music pub for the organization and accreditation, as well as to the bands for the successful show and pleasant evening!
On the back of their brand-new album ‘The Awakening’, US symphonic metal giants Kamelot are traveling through most of the world with a massive tour of the same name. On the European chapter, they’re bringing Myrath, Eleine and League of Distortion, making it a true celebration of symphonic metal. So there really was no choice but to catch this incredible bill at their stop in Helsinki.
There was a Sound of Madness on April 27 in Fort Wayne, Indiana! Shinedown, Three Days Grace and From Ashes to New rolled into town on a Thursday night for the Revolutions Live Tour! They lit the house up and burned it down in front of a sold out crowd at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum! The venue was alive as I entered the venue to pick up my credentials! I met up with the other photographers, and we headed to the pit as a group, weaving our way through the already energetic crowd. Fort Wayne loves Shinedown, and it showed from the incredible week night turnout!
From Ashes to New got things started for the night! The band was formed in 2013 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They are a rock band that has a rock/metal/rap vibe with a hint of nu metal. They guys got the crowd rowdy by playing hit tracks such as ‘Nightmare’, ‘Hate Me Too’ and ‘Panic‘.
Rock veterans Three Days Grace took the stage next! The Canadian rock band was originally formed in 1992. They kicked off their set with the hit ‘So Called Life’ and played many other favorites like ‘Animal I Have Become’, ‘Pain’, ‘Home’, ‘I Hate Everything About You’, ‘Never Too Late’, and ‘Riot’. They encouraged the crowd to form a pit several times and by the time they played their final song ‘Riot’, a small pit had broken out in the front row. Singer Matt Walst spoke about mental health and the importance of not giving up as well. By the time Three Days Grace closed out their set, the sold out crowd inside the Coliseum was buzzing and ready for Shinedown!
Now it was time for what we had all been waiting for! Shinedown’s set had 2 gigantic video screens that opened from the center as the 4 members of the band slowly walked from the back of the stage to the front, greeting the thousands of fans that had waited all night for this moment! Shinedown is composed of Brent Smith [vocals], Barry Kerch [drums], Zach Myers [guitar], and Eric Bass [bass] and they were formed in Florida back in 2001. They played a 19 song set with 20+ years of hit tracks and a couple surprises mixed in. They kicked the night off with ‘Diamond Eyes’ and kept things rolling all night with many hits such as ‘Dead Don’t Die’, ‘I’ll Follow You’, ‘Bully’, ‘If You Only Knew’, ‘State of My Head’, ‘Sound of Madness’, ‘Planet Zero’, ’45’, ‘Devil’, and ‘Monsters’. During the song ‘I’ll Follow You’, a piano was dropped out of the ceiling and Eric sat down and played the song. During the song, Brent sang from atop the piano and Zach shredded his guitar on top of the piano as well. Covers ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ (Oasis) and ‘Simple Man’ (Lynyrd Skynyrd) were also performed throughout the night. The Shinedown stage is giant, and the band uses every inch of it during their performance. They love their fans and are very interactive throughout their 2-hour set. They also touch on the importance of taking care of your mental health and to reach out if you need help. At the end of the night, they had the lights turned on and encouraged everyone to get up and get jumping. I looked around and from the pit to the top balcony, I don’t think a single person was still seated! The band closed out the night with ‘Cut the Cord’. Shinedown puts on an amazing show that I think everyone should experience at least once in their life!
Radio station Studio Brussel exists 40 years. For this occasion they broadcast for 40 hours from in VIERNULVIER, Ghent where they also staged a lot of live performances and concerts. This Saturday evening was reserved for the heavy guitars with rock and metal of Psychonaut, STAKE and Brutus. It was the first time these three bands were on the same line-up, and they were killing it.
An amazing evening of singing and screaming along to the Dutch songs of the Belgian metal sensation Fleddy Melculy. They prove again why they are so popular: Vintage hardcore with tons of metal. Hard and catchy as f*ck!!
To support them, they brought their Dutch friends of Tusky.
Leprous is a kind of band that has managed to keep growing in popularity, even though the music they release now is quite a bit away from the sound they started off with. And that was clearly noticeable on their “Aphelion European Tour”, where a lot of the dates were sold out, including the stop in Helsinki. With them, they brought the UK djent outfit Monuments and Norwegian Nordic folk inspired alt-rock band Kalandra. A quite diverse line-up that still has elements in common with each other, and promising us a splendid night of incredible music.
The legendary heavy metal act W.A.S.P. hit the stage at the famous Kulttuuritalo in Helsinki during their world tour, celebrating 40 years of uncompromising heavy metal. The show was sold out months in advance, so clearly the anticipation of the Helsinki crowd was through the roof. The evening kick-started with the Swedish heavy metal outfit Crazy Lixx delivering classic Swedish hair metal sound to an already enthusiastic crowd. Check out the pictures down below!
Belgian progressive sludge metallers Cottrell recently visited our venue Asgaard in Gentbrugge. With this, the Liege-based band is playing their very first show in Flanders! All this to celebrate Yves’ birthday, one of our valued members of the GRIMM organization! Cottrell is a still relatively unknown sludge metal band, but with a very interesting sound. There is some real potential. Off course, we took some pictures! Enjoy!
