GONG, Turku 28 April 2017

This is the part two of our ongoing series of Brother Firetribe tour stalking raports. We started during easter in Tampere, where the band played one of the first gigs of their 2017 tour. Two weeks forward and the band played at Gong, a club formely known as Klubi here in Turku.

The band's support act was supposed to be Block Buster, a band that opened the Tampere concert. We missed their set back then and we didn't see them this time either. The band's van had broken or something, and they never made it to Turku. Their replacement was a local troubadour Pickles2000 who performed four songs. He had a pretty cool raspy voice but that's just about it. The songs may have been covers, but I didn't recognize any of them.

During the support artist's performance the club wasn't very crowded. We stayed in the bar in another room, and didn't really notice how many people arrived. It was a bit of a surpise when we went back to the main room, only to find the place completely packed!

As the band has been testing how the new songs work live, the setlist had changed a little from the previous gig we saw. It was still highly focused on the new stuff, but a couple of old favourites had been added to the set, namely "Runaways" and "Wildest Dreams". The latter one was the song that was missed the most in Tampere and it went down a storm here. The brilliant "Strangled" had been left out of the setlist but we did get two old hits instead, so no complaints from me!

I must say that the band is very entertaining live, even though they don't do somersaults or anything out of the ordinary. It's just that the sheer joy of playing is always there. Vocalist Pekka Heino is a showman who knows how to handle an audience, and his sarcastic jokes are funny. The merch guy Tomm always seems to get his share of verbal abuse, but it's good-natured fun and I don't think he has been traumatized by it. Much.

The turnout at both gigs we attended was great, and it makes me think that maybe an AOR festival with mostly Finnish bands could be a viable concept. Maybe not a fullblown three day event but a one-day small-scale festival... Tribefest anyone?

SETLIST:

These songs were played but not necessarily in this order)

Sunbound / Help Is on the Way
Indelible Heroes
One Single Breath
Runaways
Heart of the Matter
For Better or for Worse
Shock
Last Forever
Wildest Dreams
Taste of a Champion
I'm on Fire
Big City Dream
Give Me Tonight
Heart Full of Fire

Phantasmagoria
I Am Rock

Review by Kimmo Toivonen
Photos by Mira Suutari-Toivonen

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Additional photos at RockUnited Facebook