Crappy support acts and slow crew
The queue was huge and doubled up alongside the building, so by the time we got to the front doors the first support band were half way through their set. The place was buzzing already and there was an array of costumes and colours. The building was well thought out, with it being an old theatre; the floor sloped upwards towards the back providing everyone with an ideal view.
We found ourselves a nice spot towards the front, but not too close, on the right hand side. Esoterica were first up, and like I said we only got to see the second half of that. What a shame, they weren't that bad and helped get us into the mood, ready for the night. That mood was shattered when we had to endure Cathedrals performance. They were so bad that people were giving the band the finger, and we don't mean rock ones. After about half an hour of people booing them they finally left, after draining us of all realization of time.
The crew took forever to change the set. So long in fact that some people sat down and seemed to set up camp -hey Glastonbury- we however resorted to singing Muppet songs and stamping our feet to keep the blood flowing. They then unveiled the black screen that was colourfully decorated with different kinds of underwear, to reveal a 3 bass drum kit. The crowd were in awe at the sight of that and the tension started to really build after that.
Halloween surprises
Finally HIM made their appearance and the crowd rushed to the front as the building exploded with excitement. Ville was painted as the crow with a wound on his face, the others were decorated with other injuries. You could tell from the very first few seconds that Ville was in the best mood he has been in for a long time live. His personality shone through and had us laughing very hard.
The set list had been juggled and they opened the night with "Soul on Fire" instead of "Buried Alive by Love", what a refreshing change. The sound was a bit off to begin with but it did improve. The energy was electric, and the band seemed to be enjoying it. Ville seemed to have a joke or short story to introduce every number. The bass drum was a little heavy and seemed to reverberate in your belly, the image was good but the sound over powered the rest of the musicians. The feeling was awesome, homely. Ville made us feel like this was a jam session amongst friends, us, the communication was warm and cheeky and he made us all get involved by encouraging us to sing along with him. Items were thrown onto the stage that he picked up and played around with, at one point Ville had a rubber chicken in his pocket, someone threw a Jack mask and Ville had great fun with that one, putting it on and singing "Beyond Redemption", but unfortunately he had to remove it because you could not hear his voice, shame that, it suited him.
That was not all, he tried on every single hat that was thrown on stage and passed it back to the others, the mischievous mood was infectious. They played "Fortress of Tears" a song that they very rarely do live, he introduced that by saying that he would have chosen "Patience" by Guns n Roses but that he can't stand Axl Rose, hehehe! *evil grin* A dedication was announced for Gas too, for the fact that he was the only one left single, that Burton and Linde had girlfriends and he and Migé had each other, cheeky monkeys, they went into "Solitary Man." He then stopped that song half way through to do an old fashioned thing in getting the woman to sing solitary woman and turning the microphone on the audience. You can get the impression of the kind of mood he was in already can't you? He was being rebellious and hysterically funny. Burton made a mistake in "The Sacrament" and they had to start again, but we forgive him.
There was a lot of pushing and shoving, but the most annoying thing about were we were was the small group of about four young, very young, boys who were pushing and falling all over the place when they heard a song that they knew. Thankfully that was not many, but the temptation to grip them by the hair and lift them up with their little legs wiggling under them was excruciating. A good thing about the night was the absence of Bam, thank fuck for that. The end of the set Ville made a big announcement about it being Halloween and that they normally go off and come back to do an encore, but that because they wanted to celebrate they were not going to do that and that this was going to be the very last song. But if the crowd made enough noise while they were taking a piss that they would come back, but to make it convincing because they believed that the tour manager had a recording back stage and played it to trick them into returning. They then played the last song but finished off by being chased off the stage by a short man with a knife. The audience didn't disappoint when they left, the noise was huge and lasted for ages, but they didn't return, not for a long time anyway. So we waited, and waited and shouted and waited.
When they finally did return they came to the front and lined up to take their bow and on bending over they spat fake blood at the front row. They then went into the encore with "In Joy and Sorrow". One of the most boring songs they've ever recorded.
On the last song he said that everyone seems to want him to take his clothes off, the crowd cheered, he them made a comment about being everybody's Chippendales and that he wasn't going to do it, then he changed his mind and said "No, hang on, if you all take your tops of we will take of ours." That we had to go first but we could leave our bras on, he had seen breasts before but that was a long time ago, they were his mothers. *grins* A few people did take their tops of and waved their shirts in the air. Ville then turned around to be faced with the fact that the band had already taken theirs off, so he joined in, making a passing comment about getting into trouble.
They closed the night with "Buried Alive by Love" and someone threw a razorblade romance pink bra on stage, which he caught and proceeded to put on while singing, hmmm, very nice, suits you sir!!
We were so in awe and enjoying ourselves so much that we can't remember them leaving the stage, as far as we were concerned the gig was still going for the next two days.
Ville was looking great, he seemed to have put on a little weight and it makes him look so much better. There were a lot of 'management' digs and we wonder if that contributed towards the rebellious approach.
Verdict: This show had everything we could wish for: great atmosphere, brilliant setlist, amazing sound and a frontman in a teriffic mood! It will be hard to top this!
Sarah and Imre
Click here to see pictures of this gig!
