The Rasmus' new hit single "F-f-f-falling" has recently been taking the Finnish airwaves by a storm. A catchy tune, I thought, and went to see what the fuzz was about.

The boys have a pretty impressive record. They are all 21 years old and already have three gold selling albums in Finland and I think the fourth "Into" will do the same any day now. The new single sold gold yesterday. In the past their music has had a strong funk vibe in it so I never really paid that much attention to them. But the new album rocks and the same could be said about their live performance.

The first impression of the band is good. They are able to create a positive atmosphere and the crowd is with them the minute they get on the stage. The biggest contributor for the atmosphere is the lead singer Lauri Ylönen who dominates the stage. The other band members play their part very well but they are just supporting the lead singer's shine in the limelight.

Although there seemed to be a lot of old fans in the crowd the stuff from the new album got the best reception by the crowd. I especially liked "Bullet" and "Heartbreaker" which worked really well. There are some song like "Liquid" from the previous albums that reveal the magnificent levels that Lauri is able to reach with his voice. Over 300 gigs that the band has done has put them into tight shape and the playing is seamless. The guitar was a bit on the background but otherwise the sound in the gig was excellent.

After building up the atmosphere and exploding the roof with "F-f-f-falling" the show was pretty much over. The Rasmus came back for only one encore. At midnight you could hear some desperate cries in the crowd when the lights came on only after 50 minutes of playing. Now a few years ago I would have accepted that since it would have been past their bedtime but now it was just too short. Nevertheless, after this I'm convinced that the band is on the right track as they are starting to conquer the world with "Into", their first album to be released internationally. Watch out Europe!

By Petri Kautto,