Photo Reports
It’s been years since I last caught Nervosa live, and since that show in Helsinki that took place shortly before the pandemic hit worldwide, a lot has changed. Sadly, they had to cancel their stop in Helsinki of the tour with Burning Witches, so I never got to see that line-up in action. But now they’re finally here, this time with a line-up that brings us dual guitars, Prika taking over the vocal duties and Hel Pyre from W.E.B. on bass duties. Plenty of exciting stuff to be looking forward to!
With the release of their new album, UNEARTH brought “The Wretched; The Ruinous” album release tour to El Corazon in Seattle, WA with the support of Upon A Burning Body, 156/Silence and Filth is Eternal. I remember seeing UNEARTH at Ozzfest 2004, and they brought the same energy and excitement they had in 2004. Check out these photos I took from the show!
After the intense show that Igorrr brought to the legendary Tavastia venue in Helsinki last year (read the report here and see the photos here), we were all too happy to see them return to Finland on their latest “Distortion European Tour”. And the fact that they brought with them a fine selection of at least just as intense bands with Amenra, Der Weg Einer Freiheit and Hangman’s Chair, got us really excited. So off we went for a trip from the Helsinki region to the Pakkahuone venue in Tampere, probably one of the best looking, and best organized venues of the country.
SKILLET – since more than two decades one of the leaders of genre Christian Rock, which is especially extremely popular in the US, and touring Europe as part of their ‘Day Of Destiny Tour 2023’. Their last long player ‘Unleashed’ was released in January this year, and this tour was the first opportunity to present the new material live. First thing of the night everybody saw: the big ‘Sold out’ sign at the doors of the venue. The venue was packed to its maximum capacity.
Supporting and opening the evening was EVA UNDER FIRE – an American rock band from Detroit, Michigan, USA. A group of skilled and experienced musicians presenting a hard-hitting style rooted in classic rock, punk, heavy metal, and sometimes pop.
LIKE A STORM was entering the stage next – an alternative metal/rock band from Auckland, New Zealand, now based in Las Vegas. They are best known for blending the didgeridoo with heavy riff-driven music.
Finally, the highlight of the night was rocking the house: SKILLET. Besides their extraordinary music, a SKILLET concert is always something very special – lights, large video LED walls, fantastic sound and special effects – singer John Cooper shooting with nitro canons like RAMMSTEIN‘s Til Lindemann shoots fire. This was an American show at its best that would be capable to be shown on much larger stages and in bigger venues. It got pretty hot, the crowd got totally crazy and everybody was singing and moving. The mood brought up a number of crowd-surfers too. Maybe the only sad thing was that there has been only one encore on this evening, leaving a fascinated and satisfied crowd.
Cam Cole is a contemporary singer, songwriter, and musician from London. He walks the streets and gives concerts, performing brutal music in the styles: folk, delta blues, grunge, and rock and roll. He is a man who plays all his instruments at the same time and does it in an exquisite, super enthusiastic way, full of positive energy and joy. I would say he is one of us on stage, ready to excite and unite people in the room through music. The concert in Munich was not easy on a technical level, due to some problems with the drum system and then a broken string on his guitar, but the audience didn’t seem to mind that. They were patient and understanding, taking advantage of the dead times to drink some beers and chat.
The smallest room in the Backstage, opened its doors in the most extensive version and the capacity sold out for a great concert and demonstration of a unique talent that many, like me, will not forget so soon. I also thank the super kindness of the musician to send a voice message to thank me the photos I took and his excitement to see the rest, it feels really good to hear this kind of recognition made in a personal way, so, thank you very much.
Opening the evening was one man also, Van Tastik. He performs authentic rock n roll and blues songs and managed to captivate the audience with friendliness and humour. Summing up the night we can say that just two men can entertain a lot of people and leave everyone with big smiles.
Tuhdimmat Tahdit and Master Events presented us with a lovely and quite relaxed way to start the first of May weekend. They brought Battle Beast for their first ever show in Nokia along with Crimson Sun. The show was a welcome change to the lately overly crowed shows at Pakkahuone in Tampere and it seemed everyone had a good time.
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.
