Nestor & Cruzh, Olympia-kortteli, Tampere, Finland, 19 October 2024

Nestor has been one of the few melodic rock success stories of the last few years. They made a big impact with their humorous videos, and while they may not take themselves too seriously, their music is seriously good. Both of their gigs in Finland were sold out and I believe they could have filled even bigger venues, especially in Helsinki where they played at On The Rocks, a relatively small club.

We saw the band in Tampere, at a venue we hadn't visited before, Olympia-kortteli. It's a pretty cool three-story place with a sizeable main room with a balcony. We found our place in the front a few minutes before Cruzh started. The usual apathy towards support acts wasn't nowhere to be found, Cruzh didn't have to perform to an empty hall. They obviously have a fan base of their own in Finland, people were singing along to their songs quite nicely.

The Cruzh line-up has been notoriously unsteady, and for some reason there were only four guys on stage in Tampere. Guitarist Anton Joensson wasn't present, the guitar duties were solely handled by Johan Öberg. The last time Cruzh played in Tampere, he was filling in for Anton, now he's an official member of the band.

Cruzh played a good set. Nine tracks, more than half from the new album "Jungle Revolution", three from the previous one "Tropical Thunder" and merely one oldie from the first album, the closing number "Aim For The Head". The band's sound has evolved from the glam/AOR hybrid of the first album to include more hard-edged, Hardcore Superstar/Crashdiët type of stuff, so their set wasn't one-dimensional, it was quite varied. I still find it amusing that one of their more AORish new songs is called "Skullcrusher"!

As the Nestor-time approached, the place filled up nicely and there was anticipation in the air. This was the third time Nestor played in Tampere, and they had made a lot of friends on their previous visits. When the intro ended and "We Come Alive" blasted out of the speakers, the crowd started singing along and didn't really stop until the show was over!

The band was dressed in similar costumes and they had thought about the visuality in other ways too: they had some synchronized stage moves and especially vocalist Tobias Gustavsson and bassist Marcus Åblad were particulary lively. The guys may be in their fifties but they can still kick high and do pirouettes! Some might think that this kind of stage antics are uncool or lame, but I though they were just perfect for Nestor!

As for the songs, there aren't too many bands with only two albums who could deliver such a non-stop hit parade as Nestor can. Every song was very well recieved and some of them really "came alive" in front of a live audience. For example, the outro of "Caroline" sounds a bit too long on the album, but now I understand its' genius, it was extremely fun to shout along to. Same with "Unchain My Heart", I like the album version but live it was sheer brilliance. Then there were the songs that have been my favourites from the day one - "On The Run", "Addicted To Your Love", "Last To Know", "Signed In Blood", "The One That Got Away"... they all worked perfectly for me.

It was a bit surprising that the video hit "Tomorrow" wasn't in the setlist, but as it is a duet, it's understandable. Flying Samantha Fox in for one song wouldn't make sense, and substitutes aren't that easy to find either.

This gig goes straight to Top 5 of the best concerts I've seen. If you have a chance to see Nestor live and you're partial to 80's styled melodic rock, don't miss that chance!

Review by Kimmo Toivonen
Photos by Mira Suutari-Toivonen

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