Crashdïet at Klubi, Turku, Finland
November 22, 2007

Band members:

Vocals: Olliver Twisted
Bass: Peter London
Guitars: Martin Sweet
Drums: Eric Young

The gigs placed middle of week seem to be quite scarce when it comes to the number of the crowd, even though a such glamorous sleaze rock band as Crashdïet is in concern. Around 100 people were witnessing the comeback of the band at Klubi, Turku. Klubi is a quite good place for smaller gigs but what comes to photographing, the lightning makes it extremely difficult. The motto of the band: "Keep the hair in shape and rest in sleaze" seemed to be very well adopted by the fans, since there seemed to be many people with big hair in the audience. Crashdïet was on mini-tour in Finland, and now it was Turku’s turn to meet those Swedish glam rockers.

The band members entered to stage accompanied by the "Dance of the knights" (Romeo and Juliet) by Sergei Prokofiev. I guess I wasn't the only one who was pretty anxious to see how Olliver Twisted could replace the band's earlier frontman Dave Lepard (R.I.P.), who left us by his own hand early last year. After having a few month's break the band decided to start searching for a new vocalist and a year ago Finnish-born Olliver Twisted joined the band. By listening the band's second album "The Unattractive Revolution" released a month ago one could expect quite a lot. If the audience might have missed something in Olliver's interpretation of the songs from "Rest In Sleaze", they surely were treated by a very heated and energetic performance by him. Man, how many singers can kick as high as Olliver??? I was pretty overwhelmed by that. I think Crashdïet has found in Olliver a good replacement for Dave. He was able to reach the very high notes quite easily.

Peter London and Martin Sweet were concentrating more on playing their instruments as well as backing vocals instead of jumping on stage. And that was good. Their performances were very cool and steady. Eric Young kept the beat going with his very powerful playing.

The gig started with the first single track from "The Unattractive Revolution", ie. "In The Raw". The songs played from the new album were quite well received. My favourite song among those was "Falling Rain". The band seems to be very proud of the song "I Don't Care" which was co-written by Martin Sweet and Mick Mars of Mötley Crüe. I was hoping to hear "Overnight" from the new album, 'cause it's my favourite track. Unfortunately it was not played. "Like A Sin" and "Thrill Me" were heard also. "XTC Overdrive" seems to be a great sing-a-long song, the crowd really got into this song.

All the big hits from "Rest In Sleaze" ("Riot In Everyone", "Breakin’ The Chainz", "It’s A Miracle") were played of course. All of those songs reminded us in the crowd that how great the debut album really was. Of those aforementioned songs the latter one got the crowd really going. Not far behind of those hit songs were "Queen Obscene / 69 Shots" or "Knokk 'Em Down". "Needle In Your Eye" and "Tikket" got a bit more plain reception.

All in all, the gig was very entertaining and intense. I'm glad that the remaining Diet members made a decision to continue their musical career after Dave's pass. They've found in Olliver quite a nice entertainer and capable singer.

SET LIST:

In The Raw
Queen Obscene / 69 Shots
Like A Sin
Needle In Your Eye
I Don't Care
Falling Rain
Riot In Everyone
Thrill Me
Knokk 'Em Down
It’s A Miracle
Tikket

Encores:
XTC Overdrive
Breakin’ The Chainz

Report and photos by
Mira Suutari-Toivonen
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