Original Portuguese version at Sound(/)Zone.

Para a Andreia Moutinho 

» SONATA ARCTICA were far from being a live novelty in Portugal, having played here first with STRATOVARIUS, then with GAMMA RAY and last time with Doro. But the latter had been in 2006 and Elias Viljanen joined the band the following year, so having him here was a premiere – and surely the youngest fans had never seen a gig of these Finns either.

Released a little bit over than a year ago, “Stones Grow Her Name” was the most played album, starting right off with the intro “Wildfire, Part III – Population 0” and “Only the Broken Hearts (Make You Beautiful)”, and later going through the mandatory singles “Shitload O’ Money” and “I Have A Right”. And “Cinderblox”, which Tony Kakko made everybody dance close to the end of the gig. Still, they went through all their discography, with “Broken”, “Tallulah” and “FullMoon” pinpointing some of the highlights.

Before “Replica”, Tony and Elias sat down in front of the drum kit and started chit-chatting – the singer asking the guitarist what was he thinking of Portugal (“I love it!”), if he would go for a stroll the following day, to the beach… Elias said yes to everything, except surfing.

The show ended with “Don’t Say A Word” – better yet, with “Vodka” – but before that Tony did the usual vocal exercise with the crowd, which included screaming real loud – “like you mean it!” – “Tony, shut the fuck up!”. «

www.sonataarctica.info

It was impossible to find an angle for Tommy Portimo, among all those cymbals, but on the video wall one could see he was happy to play there…