Front Row Forever

Original Portuguese version here: http://www.backstageforum.com/t4732-reportagem-epica-stream-of-passion-xandria-hard-club-22-04-2012#30072

» The clock didn’t strike 19:00 yet and the queue for Hard Club’s Room #1 was already beyond Room #2. XANDRIA, with their 15-year-old career, wasn’t just any opening act and there were many who didn’t want to miss a thing, especially when the German band would play for just half an hour. Before the opening of the doors, guitarists Marco Heubaum and Philip Restemeier, in charge of the band’s merchandise, were approached by several fans for photos and autographs.

All six tracks of the short setlist belonged to their latest work, “Neverworld’s End”, except the last one, “Ravenheart” - probably their most popular song, released in 2004.

After the inccident with Nils Middelhauve‘s index finger, whose blood poisoning forced the bass player to undergo two surgeries already, Fabio D’Amore from Austrian SERENITY took hold of the five strings and seemed totally at ease, interacting both with the other musicians and the audience, as if he’s always been in the band.

Philip spoke in a Brazilian Portuguese – which he was completely aware of and therefore apologized – that they would be outside in the end of EPICA‘s gig, if we wanted meet them. Given the way the crowd screamed during and between songs, I’m sure that many did so. «

www.xandria.de

I found out in this concert that the “new guy”, Berny, likes to kick the air and jump. Given the number of times I’ve seen EQUALEFT = number of photos I already have of them, I decided that next time I’ll just take a few shots of Veggy, Filipe and Marcos and then I’ll focus just on Berny and Miguel‘s movements. They’re the perfect models for live-action photos

There was a guy who had his birthday on that day (or close to it), so Miguel invited him on stage and made us all sing “Happy Birthday”. Later, he also asked the Roller Derby girls to get up there, ending up extending the invitation to everyone.

When the crowd asked for an encore, I was hoping they would play Carlos Paião cover of “Playback” – it’s been a while since the last time they’ve done it. But I guess Berny never rehearsed it (not even sure if Filipe has), so they played “Suffer No More” again – their “hit single”

www.myspace.com/equaleft

I’ve known César Teixeira for over than 15 years and even though he’s been in several bands, this was the very first time I had the chance to see him on stage. And to realize what a great voice he has

When he first addressed to the audience, he said they weren’t musicians – they were just a bunch of gastronomers who also liked music. The band had some friends in the crowd replying to the jokes, so the concert was held in a very funny and friendly environment.

“Lost Soul” was dedicated to their former singer, Henrique Loureiro, who was there as a photographer.

www.myspace.com/unfoldedvision

Roller Derby Porto decided to celebrate it’s 1st anniversary with a concert, where its girls would be rolling through the audience. Cool!

One of the girls, Tats (a.k.a. Mayven Rage), has her own “activist noise” band so having DEAD BY PREGNANCY on the bill was an obvious choice.

They focus on feminism, equal rights and pro-choice, so I guess that’s why guitarist James Loose was wearing female clothes, and Rodriguez had a battered doll hanging on the arm of his bass – alerting for domestic violence. Now why drummer Ema Rinaldi was dressed in a rubber black suit that left only his eyes (and probably nose and mouth) uncovered, that’s totally beyond me

For the song “Bitch”, Mayven called her Roller Derby friends on stage and made them – as well as us – scream the word really loud during the chorus.

www.myspace.com/deadbypregnancy

I love music. From sleaze to thrash, going through some goth, I listen a little bit of everything. So the list of bands that I enjoy is endless. But there are two above all the others, two that share in equal parts the gold medal on the podium of my favourite bands – SONIC SYNDICATE and BLOWSIGHT.

The trip to Stockholm had been planned a couple of weeks before the Easter concert was announced, and I swear I looked at the date some 3 times to make sure I was seeing it clearly – to make sure I didn’t need to reschedule my flights and hostel booking

I rode along the Official French Support, a.k.a. Skully Gang, and we had a blast! It was only my 4th gig, but the girls had seen them more than a dozen times. So when I say this was the best BLOWSIGHT gig I’ve seen and they agree, it must mean something

My written Swedish is okay-ish. My spoken Swedish is a disaster. So apart from Nick saying something about being a long time since they’d last played in their hometown, I can’t tell you much about what the boys said on stage. But I can assure you they were all in a very good mood and the crowd was cheerful.

Although I’ve been a devoted fan since 2009, the first time I had the chance to see them live was late 2010, when they were already promoting “Dystopia Lane”. Meaning I missed the promotion of “Destination: Terrorville” and never had the chance to see live some of the songs that made me fall in love with them in the first place. This show would ammend that.

“I Wish You 666″ is still their track-of-choice to kick off the gig, and “Three Words (Under Ordinary)” followed suit. Then the first blast-from-the-past came in the form of “How I Get What I Deserve” (in which I looked at Nyny with a smile, as she recently tattooed on her back a few lines from this song).

I think it was after this one, or maybe “Miracle”, that Nick switched languages, speaking English because there were people who had come “all the way from France and all the way from Portugal” just to see them

A few more songs from “Destination…” – “introducing Mr. Mao“ in “All That Is Wrong” – and in the end of “Over The Surface” Seb hitched the chords of “Bus Girl”. Despite that beautiful song being featured on the setlist, Nick found a way of keep singing “Over The Surface”, so “Bus Girl” ended there and wasn’t more than a brief instrumental passage. Another ballad came up: “Days Of Rain”.

Then they engaged on the songs from the “Shed Evil” EP and I thought they wouldn’t go back again (except for “The Simple Art”, for the finale), so I believed I wouldn’t listen – again – to my favourite “Terrorville”. But I DID!

For “Bandit For Life”, Nick told us “ladies from France and Portugal, you know what to do”. But everybody did. Also the girls had come up with a choreography for B-A-N-D-I-T that I was supposed to learn, but I didn’t have the time for it  Pardon, darlings. You did great without me anyway

Jason Rouse returned on stage, asking if we wanted more “Blowlight” (I still don’t know if it was another of his jokes or if he really didn’t know the name of the band) and then the boys resumed their gig with “Poker Face” and “The Simple Art (Of Making You Mine)”

It seems the concert had been this close to be cancelled, as both Nick and Fabz had been sick with a terrible flu! We were amazed because no one could tell so, given the extraordinary gig they’ve performed! Guess “high voltage rock’n'roll” is the cure

The boys will now lay low for a while, to finish the successor to “Dystopia Lane”. Nick said some time ago on Facebook that they “would make Fabz sweat a lot”, so I think it’s fair to say they’ll continue down the heavy path that “Shed Evil” started on. Really looking forward to that, as well as the tour which will support it. If things turn out as they’re hoping for (fingers crossed!), that will happen later this fall. I’m already saving money for it

www.blowsight.com

Here are some pics, whose quality is directly inverse to the concert’s:

The Skully Gang – July, Naïs & Nyny:

Sunny & Snappy, the furry fans:

Me and the girls were in front of Debaser doors at 20:00 sharp. Not only we were eager for the evening to start, but there was a freezing wind in Stockholm on that Easter sunday.

I knew there would be a kind of stand-up comedy before, but as I thought the guy was Swedish, I hadn’t high hopes on laughing that much. But Jason Rouse is Canadian! So I did laugh. A lot. The guy has this weird, dark humour, saying thing that we might even think but are afraid to say out loud, even to our friends, afraid that it’s “too much”. Well, he says them loud and clear  

www.jasonrouse.com

Then came MINORA, “progressive and atmospheric metal from Göteborg”. I wanted to check more about them before, but I had only time to see the video for “A New Dawn”, so I had an idea of what to expect. What I didn’t have a clue of was why they put such a band with a pop/metal/punk one. These guys are good, but most of the audience was there for something completely different – me included. I would have appreciated them a lot more if they were playing with, for example, KATATONIA, as I would be in that kind of mood.

Still, they did very well – despite the bass problems of Djilali Benarradj. And singer Tommie Zetterlund really gives himself to the music – very expressive.

So far they have only one album, “Imago”, but I know they are currently working with Jesper Strömblad for a near-future release. Don’t know if they played some of those new songs that night, sorry.

About the pics… Well, if you’re into silhouettes, you’re probably going to like this. Now if you’re looking for some reference image to recognize the guys on the street…  

www.minora.org

Both in 2010 and 2011 I saw PLAN THREE in April. So when “The Signal – Part 1″ was released last November, I thought “hmm, they’ll surely play some gigs to promote this in the near future. It would be funny if they played in Stockholm on another saturday in April…” It wasn’t in Stockholm, but close enough, so I saw it as… a signal  And off I went.

With the new EP out, “Triggers” was replaced by “Kill Anyone” as the opening track of the gig. Fine with me! It works pretty well. In  fact, all the new five songs, performed interily that night, sound just as great live as in the studio. Or maybe even better, as you can actually see the emotion the musicians put on their performance.

Especially singer Jacob Lovén. When I saw Garage had a small stage, I wondered if Jacob would have enough room for his energetic and charismatic presence. How could I have possibily even doubted?  Once again, even the ballads – the new “Wake Up” included – have this power-edge to them, so instead of making the crowd (and the band) slow down a bit, the whole venue just keeps the rock vibe pumping  

They left the stage after “Save Me”, the “B-side” of their very first single “Achilles Heel” (2007), but returned right after (in fact, they just stood on the steps that lead to the stage, so they would go back faster). Chris Sörbye, singer in the previous band SMASH INTO PIECES, also got on stage, to ask the audience for an ovation for PLAN THREE. Jacob kissed his cheek and the boy said he was blushing now  “Brush It Off”, “Still Broken” and “The Common Divided” and another amazing concert was over.

The lights weren’t good but they weren’t that bad either – it’s just that I only had my point-and-shoot Canon. And I stood too much to the left, hence the lack of pics from Mathias Garneij and David Clewett – förlåt boys  Next time I should try and get a photopass. Maybe April 2013

www.planthreeband.com

Tusen tack till Marisol o Kristina för skjutsen tillbaka till Sthlm