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It was almost eight o'clock on a cold Wednesday evening, when Nosturi started getting packed with metal fans again. Gigs in the middle of the week aren't too popular here though. On this evening one German and two Swedish bands were taking over the stage. The place was about half full by the time Edguy came on stage and the first band, Tad Morose, suffered the most from the lack of audience, getting only a few people into their show. This time the show began already before eight o'clock, being merciful to those who have to work the next day. This was the last show in Europe for Edguy before hitting the summer festivals, so needless to say there were expectations in the air about a unique, or at least surprising show. And that shouldn't be a tough task for Edguy. was the first band and suffered from support band's curse, they had terrible sounds. They played on a low volume, which was ok, but the discant was teasing the ear. But none of that was bothering the band. They obviously still had fun on stage and their singer, Urban Breed, tried to get the crowd going, no success in that area eventhough he went really near the first row fans. Strangely enough the people cheered a lot when they finished, but it wasn't from the relief that the band finished their set, but they somehow liked what they had heard after all. Not many songs were heard in their short set, but some new ones at least from their latest album. The band was nice to watch as they didn't just stand still. Urban Breed had some strange manoeuvres similar to Zachary Stevens (ex-Savatage, Circle II Circle), and even some of his vocal work was very similar to Stevens. Their set was only 30 minutes, when Nocturnal Rites played for about an hour and Edguy went through their set under two hours. had a visitor Joachim "Piesel" Küstner from Iron Savior in guitar on one song. The band had the strangest sing-along part never heard before, yoddling, grunting and everything between. The crowd did quite good and had a bunch of laughs after passing the usual "crowd-test", even the security guards were laughing at what was going on. Even that the place wasn't sold out, the air was filled with roars and hands, the reaction was much better than with Tad Morose. But NR seemed a bit more lively too, and their bassist Nils Eriksson put a smile on fans faces with his act. The sounds didn't get much better though, but they were clear. When the band kept having encores after another in the end of the show, the roadie decided to start taking the drums apart while the last song wasn't even finished.
EDGUY "Welcome
To The Freakshow !" blasted from the speakers as a good starter, then
Edguy took the stage with amazing energy, "Under The Moon" as the first
song and the show was full of action from beginning to end.
The setlist: Intro
Review
by Satu Reunanen |
TAD
MOROSE
NOCTURNAL
RITES
Tobias Sammet was joking a lot again between songs as usual and almost
fooled everyone by saying they'll do a song from Modern Talking...he
also adviced the crowd to bring their friends, pets, relatives etc to
their show next time. That might happen in two years for finns, but
fans are eagerly waiting for it already. To Tobias' disappointment his
search for goodlooking finnish girls didn't bring any results, but that
didn't let him down as more jokes followed after this. He did a little
Judas Priest-impersonation and he nailed it down just right, having
the right amount of comedy to it. Being the leader of the band he fills
his place there really well, putting up a helluva show on his own. Though
the band doesn't just stand still either, the "triplets" were swinging
their hips side by side along with their instruments and giving their
share of fun to the fans. When it was time to do some sing-along, Tobias
decided to split the audience in half from the middle and everyone was
having fun while listening to the other side trying to compete with
the noisy side, squeaking something desperately out from their mouths.
Tobias even threatened the audience if they didn't do well enough, the
band would split up and never tour again. But these people were here
to see Edguy and they were enjoying every moment, they even sang along
to the new songs amazingly loud. This kind of reaction isn't often heard
on smaller shows and this was after all a small show, since only about
half of the tickets were sold.
One
song that took me by surprise was "The Piper", being a long song that's
the least song off the new album you'd expect them to play live. But
it worked brilliantly, even with the slower parts. So perfectly really,
that it was among the best songs that evening heard from them. The guitarists
from Nocturnal Rites had something up their sleeves, they suddenly surprised
the guys while playing, appearing in front of the stage with flags,
one flag saying "I'm pregnant with your child, Tobias" and one "I will
trade my guitar for sex. I know you're gay, Dirk !". This surprise was
also done in Tampere, the night before Helsinki. Rough humour to some,
but for metal fans there's nothing new to it, it just spices up things.
Edguy's set included a demon in the back of the stage, spreading its
wings in one song and filling the entire back wall. A statement was
also attached to it later on saying "Der Bremen, meister". Fans will
probably know what it's about. The set was very energetic and bombastic,
Tobias was jumping a lot and kicking, though this time he decided to
stay on stage and not run around among the crowd like on their last
show here. There isn't a boring show from these guys. Their sounds were
the best this evening of course, and maybe it was in the ear of the
listener, but it seemed like they didn't play extremily loud this time.
Eventhough you could say earplugs have grown in to me with this job,
I still didn't miss them in the front row (the devilish place of the
bass banging to your brain !). Or then I'm just getting old and losing
my hearing. And tactile sense along with it, as the bass didn't reach
the chest either as usual when you're in front of the speakers...Anyhow,
Edguy once again put up a great show and made new fans. During the Edguy
set the support bands members were seen in the audience, Tad Morose'
Urban watched Edguy's show right behind me, even that I couldn't stand
still. He really picked a place I must say, but the front of the stage
was really packed so it was hard to see anything, but where I was standing
there was still some room to see something. The bands kept having fun
upstairs after the show and many backstage passes were given out. Edguy
might've also appeared upstairs later on, but RockUnited needed some
sleep, so we packed our gear and headed home.