In today's music scene, Brother Firetribe stand out as a bit of an oddity. Instead of being one of the hundreds Gothic or "Emo-rock" acts drowning in their own misery or one of the hundreds "aggro-metal" bands with tattoos, combat boots and an attitude to match, Brother Firetribe are in it for fun. F-U-N! Remember that thing? They have catchy songs you can easily sing along to, and their lyrics don't have too much death, tears or pain at all... and what's more, they seem to have good time on stage! Last Friday (8 September, 2006) RockUnited.Com witnessed the band's second ever gig in Turku, at Klubi.

The support act for Brother Firetribe was a band called Deathlike Silence. As the band's name suggests, their music was a bit less cheerful than the headliners', but they weren't quite as gloomy as you'd think. They call their music "undertaker metal", but it seems that they aren't "dead serious" about it. The tombstones and the shovel (!) on stage were pretty cool touches, not to mention the top hats both of the guitarists were wearing as they kicked off their set.

The band's "undertaker metal" is gothic-flavoured metal with melancholic melodies. Vocalist Ms. Maya was clearly the center of attention with her strong stage presence, although towards the end of the gig the lead guitarist Mr. Cerberos stole the limelight with some good ol' guitar hero antics, like playing his axe behind his neck. Not bad at all! The songs that caught my attention the most were the opener "House On The Haunted Hill" and the band's heavy cover of Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers". Check out the band's website for more info: http://www.deathlikesilence.com/ (it's in Finnish though).

Before, between and after the two live sets we were treated to some classic 80's metal, hard rock and AOR tracks by the DJ's IC and Thunder. These two guys know their stuff and played a lot of cool tracks, some of which were apparently selected by the Firetribe guys. You don't often get to hear stuff like Zeno or Tobruk in a club, so thumbs up for these guys. Check out their website at
http://www.neversurrenderclub.tk for more info and playlists.

As the clock struck midnight, it was time for the headliners. The album opener "Break Out" was chosen as the live show opener as well, and it worked well with its' bombastic intro and shout-along chorus. The band was obviously enjoying themselves from the start, and so was the audience. The place seemed to be quite packed and most people seemed to know the songs, helping the band out with those chorus vocals.

"Lover Tonite", one of my favourite songs was the second song of the set, and it sounded great too. Overall, the band sounds a bit heavier and less polished on stage than on CD, but that's only natural... unless you were to rely on tapes and other tricks. There wasn't much need for taped backing vocals though, thanks to bassist Jason Flinck. He did an excellent job providing harmonies to all of the songs.

One of our photographer Mira's definite favourites, "Devil's Daughter" was played next, followed by the first ballad of the evening, the majestic "Spanish Eyes". It was the familiar synth intro of the hit single "One Single Breath", tinkled by keyboard wizard Tomppa Nikulainen, that got the crowd really going though. It seems that radio is still a force to be reckoned with, such was the response to this song.

Vocalist Pekka Heino was an excellent frontman and had a good contact with the audience. The latest addition to the band, drummer Kalle Torninainen proved to be a solid drummer. Too bad he was a bit too far back there to be photographed, obscured by the symbals from where our photographer was standing.

Guitarist Emppu Vuorinen showed that the countless gigs with Nightwish have made him a true professional entertainer, not to mention a virtuoso guitarist. He has a way of making his playing look totally effortless.