Reviewed by:
KSM, on february 10, 2005
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Sound: I'd heard bad things about Valo's live voice goin to this gig, and I have to say I was pleasantly suprised. He sounded very similar to the recordings, and sang well throughout the night. The guitarist spent the night playing with a couple of very fine looking SGs, and I have no idea what the other guys were playing. Cathedral's (openers) guitarist was also using a Cherry SG. The sound was pretty good, but it wasn't perfect. For a start, it really didn't seem all that loud for a gig, and I don't think they plugged the bassist's mic in properly, I could barely hear him, if at all. Ville occasionally screwed up a bit too, but nothing really bad. // 8
Perfomance: The audience in general seemed to love them, although the audience was made up of 90% teen girls and guys in black leather trenchcoats and those damn hats. Still, there was a bit of pushing and shoving, but mainly it was just standing about a bit. The band themselves didn't really do all that much either. There was the odd bit of chat, but very little apart from Villa stopping halfway through a song and telling people to stop chucking crap onstage. They didn't really put much energy into the performance either, they just stood and did their thing, although they did it well. They played what could pretty much be decribed as a "hit list", all the songs their audience had seen on Kerrang, nothing suprising or special, just a standard setlist. Only really noteable performance was where Ville let the audience sing the "buried alive by love" line in the song of the same name. There was a giant metal frame heartagram with lights on it behind them, and the lighting was pretty good. Nothing to write home about though. // 8
Impression: I caught the gig at the Wolves Civic, in Wolverhampton (UK) on the 20th of October 2004. The openers were an old British doom band called Cathedral, which I learnt from a guy at a urinal while I was taking a leak just before the show. I don't know how they wound up opening for him, I thought they were great, awesome in comparison to HIM. Great solos, good singer, it was fun. The teenage girls didn't seem to like it though, I kept hearing "f--k off, we want HIM" in thick Wolverhampton accents. Ah well.
I suppose the best thing about the show was that it was an alright performance, shortly followed by Cathedral playing opener. There isn't too much to rave about with this show, it was just a standard performance. I got bored at the front end halfway through and went to the bar for a drink, it just wasn't anything special. Seeing Cathedral play made it up for me though. Tickets were around £16 I believe, it's a while ago now, and I'd say it wasn't worth it. They didn't play badly, but they didn't play great either, I felt like I might as well be sitting down for it. Best moment was being just a few feet from the supporting act's guitarist while he was playing some very nice solos. I won't be seeing HIM again, I don't think, but it was probably a lot different for the big HIM fans there. // 6
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