Do you remember Lordi? Of course you do! They won that little competition called Eurovision 9 years ago, and yes they are still around! Albeit the band have now arrived at the shore after riding that tremendous wave of success that followed their Eurovision victory, the band are still going strong, and here we are watching the monstermen in London tonight with a couple friends they brought with them.
Dirty Passion
The support bands for the evening admittedly I had no prior knowledge of before tonight’s performance, but that always leaves a chance to impress! First up tonight were Dirty Passion, a hard rock band from Malmö, Sweden as blatantly donned on their band banners.
The band arrived on stage in typical California skid row attire with a little bit of make-up for that glam feel. In all honesty, the atmosphere that surrounded the band laid the foundations for their sound, and there were no surprises at all. It was mid-tempo hard rock, a few solos here and there and a few comical remarks about love.
The performance had a very pub band feel to it, but the band really seemed to enjoy what they were doing. The music was average, but it almost seemed like the band knew that, and took full enjoyment out of their show which actually reflected on the audience pretty well. Some fist pumping occurred, a few chants to the easy and memorable parts of the choruses, and some audience members yelling hilarious things to the band in between songs with the band making witty comebacks. As remarkably average as it was, a very enjoyable show indeed!
Hollywood Groupies
Next up were Hollywood Groupies, an Italian hard rock / heavy metal band that have been around for quite a while, since 2006 to be exact when Lordi won their Eurovision triumph. Maybe having them on tour was some sort of reference to this? Probably not, but what we can say is that this band definitely did not follow up the last one very well at all.
After a prolonged intro (I always think bands using a full pre-recorded song as an intro is a bit silly), the band burst on stage with a great amount of energy – something that’s always very commendable in a live performance. However in this instance, the energy seemed like an overblown effort to cover up the music which was mediocre at best.
The music had no identity or rhythm, the guitars were scratchy and the general mix of the instruments was way off the mark. This was topped off by a vocalist who seemed to want to imitate female rock heroes such as Joan Jett and Wendy O. Williams, but instead shrieked like 2 crows fighting over a bag of discarded chips.
It was sadly a waffle of noise. As I haven’t heard any recorded music I can’t say if it was just a poor performance or the music was generally like this, but if it’s the latter the band definitely need to go back and re-strategise their musical approach.
Lordi
And now for the main attraction of the evening, what everybody in a packed Islington Academy came to see – the monstermen do their thing that they have done so well even pre-Eurovsion success – entertain!
While I’m sure half the venue just came to see the band perform ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah‘, Lordi have actually released some very decent albums in the past few years. The latest of which being ‘Scare Force One‘, released late last year, and the reason Lordi are here tonight.
The stage has been set for an epic show already, with ex-members heads being hung from the drum kit to banners and amps donning horror scenes and a visible demon baby being set up.
After another full song intro of Kiss‘ ‘God of Thunder‘ (I seriously don’t understand why bands do this), a flight attendant walked on stage and guided us through the safety procedures of travelling on Scare Force One, and then suddenly here is Lordi marching on stage to the sound of ‘Nailed By The Hammer Of Frankenstein‘ in all their monstery goodness.
It’s still amazes me how awesome the band’s costumes look, and while the visual feast of instrumental props (such as an axe for a microphone stand) and costumes are the centrepiece of tonight’s show, the music sounds simply fantastic!
Moving on to ‘This Is Heavy Metal‘, Lordi have instantly won everybody over with the entire Academy pumping their fist and chanting along to the keywords in the song, which is sustained throughout the entirely of tonight’s show.
The band wasted no time in proceeding to play their bread and butter, ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah‘. It seemed like the band just wanted to get this track out of the way so they could showcase what else they had to offer and prove they are not a one-trick pony. Rightfully so too!
As the performance progressed the band used interludes between songs to drive a remote control demon baby on stage, have a zombie grandma jump into the audience, rise a dead man from a coffin, and blast the audience with an assortment of faux weaponry including a blood cannon and smoke machine.
It was all brilliant with an excellent assortment of tracks, new and old and of course all the Lordi hits including ‘Deadache‘ and ‘Blood Red Sandman‘, with each member getting a theatrical solo performance – the particularly entertaining one being guitarist Amen’s solo in between two fake flame towers demanding to be worshipped like an Egyptian God.
The encore coasted of the major hits for pre-Eurovision Lordi fans, including ‘Devil is a Loser‘ and the final ‘Would You Love A Monsterman?‘, the band have proven without hinderance that they are still going strong. They are playing in smaller venues now and without the pyro, but that has not stopped them from putting on the finest performance they can offer.
This is the best that metal has to offer – entertainment in its most refined form. If you haven’t seen Lordi yet, you simply must, metalhead or not!
