Live review: Killer Aspect & Crumbland - Helsinki, Finland

After 6 months it was finally time for another gig trip – first stop: Helsinki. I was so excited to be on the road again! I got to Helsinki the night before, met up with friends I haven’t seen since last year, met up with more friends next day – haven’t seen some in years! It was nice. After a bit of catching up it was time to head to On The Rocks – lovely bar/venue in the centre of Helsinki.

Stage was all set, it was small but lovely. Very cosy place. Killer Aspect is a band some of my friends and I have know for quite a while already, but this was my first chance to see them live. They’ve just released their debut album How Does It Work in April [2008] and started touring massively. At this gig they were playing with Crumbland – a band I totally fell in love with last year. I was waiting for my chance to see Crumbland live since last summer, and there they finally were.

Killer Aspect

Killer Aspect came on soon and a couple of my friends dragged me to front row with them. Well not really dragged me and there were no actual rows cause it is a small place, but still. And what was I left to do but to go with the it and enjoy the sounds of guitars and drums playing some of those (semi) familiar songs live in front of me. Moments like that make you realize how much you’ve missed something. Live shows are what keep me alive. Guys played a decent set, warmed up the crowd pretty well. If not almost outshine the main act some could say. By the number of people ´front row´ for Crumbland later you could almost say that. But then again Crumbland´s music is really not for all tastes. While Killer Aspect is a modern Finnish rock, Crumbland is more like a mix of grunge influence and that Finnish touch that is rather hard to describe. Something very much for my taste though.

Crumbland

And then finally it was time for Crumbland, a moment I´ve been waiting for. They started with Pleasure – not one of my favourite songs, but continued with the songs that I love, songs like Feel You, In Your Head and Your King and also added a couple of new ones that I haven’t heard before. Since it was rather empty at the stage at first, I stayed more at the back too, enjoying the show from a bit of a distance. But then, when Jontte started playing first bits of Down on his guitar something just moved inside of me and dragged me closer to the stage. Like I was being hypnotized. Down is just the most amazing, the most beautiful, most powerful ballad that touches me every single time when I listen to it. And hearing it live like that – it was breath taking. Seriously. Definitely the highlight of the evening. I stayed up there for the rest of the set loving every minute of it, singing along with a nice big grin on my face. Happy. I got what I came for.

Verdict: Needless to say it all ended way too soon and before we knew it we were leaving the place cause a hockey game on the big screen took over replacing the loud music in the club. It was still without a doubt a night to remember and something so worth coming to Helsinki for.

Romana