GIG NUMBER NINETY-ONE
Who
It may have been October but it was yet another warm day in a freakishly hot year, and we arrived at the Academy to be greeted by what looked like a near-full crowd filled with an almost exclusively greebo audience, fortunately with some older fans amongst them to stop us feeling too silly. I guess that announcing this show so many months in advance had allowed for people to buy tickets before the "buzz" had past so proved a masterstroke. I had a couple of drinks and we were standing at the back towards the right when Turisas took to the stage. They crossed loud rock music with more traditional elements and sounded like what Flogging Molly at Reading should have done. They had two accordion players, keyboards and violins, and made a glorious racket, perhaps even better than what Lordi managed! The singer brandished a very large sword saying that they'd be giving it away in a competition, and I wondered how they managed to sneak that one past the security. It was almost distressing to hear some juvenile greebo in the toilets afterwards trying to put on a mature voice and claiming that Turisas were shit, but I resisted the urge to punch him and made my way back in. We tried to move forwards but the crowd were quite dense and we could only get slightly out in front of the wankers on the balcony who kept throwing stuff. Around this point I recognised that some staff from the Royal London in Wolverhampton were alongside us, which of course won't mean anything to anybody reading this... Will it? The Lordi stage was set up and featured an amazing gothic haunted castle structure and a Stars In Their Eyes style entrance. Coupled with their make-up budget this must make for an expensive show.
After an atmospheric spoken-word bit with a Vincent-Price-in-Thriller vibe they took to the stage and proceeded to play lots of songs which sounded quite cool but I didn't know. Somebody was brandishing a Finland flag and they kept making us chant "Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!" in time to their music, and saying hi to both sides of the venue. It was all good honest fun, and I don't even recall any swearing! I'd expected a short set but they played for quite a while, comfortably dragging out proceedings with some outstanding solos from all members. Their make-up was rather awesome and their theatrical tendencies didn't stop there, with the singer brandishing a chainsaw, squirting us with water and (I think) pretending a hang a Goth girl onstage who may have been one of the lady hobos begging outside: I'm writing this review five months late so I simply don't remember the details or if this even happened like this! I do know that they milked their good reception for all it was worth, playing an incredible number of encores, and that the strobe lighting was, similar to Embrace, extremely intrusive. They carried on so long that I started to feel concerned that they wouldn't even play Hard Rock Hallelujah, and every time they started a song and the crowd cheered I was shocked that it was something else: How can everyone be so enthusiastic when so many superior bands can't get people to enjoy the b-sides?! When Hard Rock Hallelujah did finally start it was almost an anti-climax, as the quality of other stuff in their set had been at around the same standard and they were no longer one hit wonders in my eyes. They still finished early and I got the last train back and downloaded some songs, which I admittedly haven't bothered hearing since. But Lordi had managed to be as entertaining as I'd expected, so this night was a success, even though it hasn't changed the course of my life in the slightest.
Mark: 7.0/10
Lordi
Support
Turisas
Where
Birmingham Academy
When
27th October 2006
Price
£10.00
Who with
Nick
Position
Towards the back
Comments
Continuing my highly unusual run of gigs were the winners of the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest! Fortunately however something beyond standard shite pop had triumphed this time around, and Lordi must have surprised many people by their "scary" image being backed up by the strongest pop song of the ceremony. The contest seems to have taken on an air of respectability since, with even Morrissey and Oasis talking about entering. Lordi haven't quite succeeded in breaking down the boundaries between self-pitying greebo and pointless pop though. As under-14s were allowed in, this show had more than its fair quote of underage greebos who view Lordi as something rebellious, and certain people I knew seemed to think I was mad to be going, showing they're still victims of narrow-minded opinions too. I see Lordi for what they truly are - a good pop band with an unusual style - and it was in this spirit that I had decided months before to go. Unusually for a Friday night gig, doors opened at 6pm and it finished early, which was either to clear the way for a club night afterwards or out of respect for the early bedtimes of much of the crowd! I must confess I hadn't made much effort to research the band, and that Hard Rock Hallelujah was the only one I knew: Nick in fact didn't even know that! I followed my now-standard plan of going home first and visiting the chip shop. The one "tweak" was that I made sure we were back in town at a sensible time and prepared to make a bit more effort to enjoy the band and ensure a good vibe. But this was my third show in ten days so I could hardly say I was out of practice. The downside was that I once again had to put up with a Brummie crowd, and by now I had had quite enough of going to shows anywhere other than Wolverhampton or Manchester.
