Tonight the gods of music called me out to Santa Cruz to see a band that has come long ways and is a legendary live band all throughout Europe. A band that has won the Eurovision Song Contest despite all the doubters: Lordi from Finland were stopping by in Santa Cruz to play at The Catalyst. And I was there with them.
Lordi is a Finnish hard rock/heavy metal band, formed in 1992 by the band’s lead singer, songwriter and costume maker, Mr Lordi. In addition to their melodic metal music, Lordi are also known for wearing monster masks and using horror elements with pyrotechnics during concerts and music videos. Lordi rose to fame in 2002 with their hit single, “Would You Love a Monsterman?”. The band made history in 2006 by becoming the first, and still today the only, hard rock act and Finnish artist to win the Eurovision Song Contest, with the song “Hard Rock Hallelujah”.
Lordi has toured around the world actively since 2002. They are currently on their US tour for their latest album.
Their support act was Warcorpse. Warcorpse is a local metal band. Warcorpse is a five piece. The Catalyst is a small but charming venue and the stage is not that big. So it happened, that Warcorpse had to locate half of their band in front of the stage.
The two guitarists, the bass player and the singer were set up right in front of the stage. Up close with the audience. The dim red light was setting the atmosphere as the band was shredding away on their instruments and performed their metal tunes to the audience. It was a somehow familiar feelings in the venue. Warcorpse was talking quite a lot between the songs, telling stories or jokes. Heavy metal tunes and the growled vocals got the audience moving along and cheering after every song. Fast and pushing music filled up the venue. The band played for about 45 minutes and was slowly warming up the crowd. For the last song, a small moshpit formed. Then it was time for Warcorpse to leave the stage.
The venue was still quite empty. Quite some people had not come out because of the heavy rain that had set in this evening. But some came out to see Lordi conquer the USA. These guys looked mainly like hardcore metal fans that were all dressed up in in black with gothic accessories.
After over an hour waiting, it was time for Lordi to enter the stage. The hour wait time was quickly forgotten as the Finns were guided through the room until they entered the stage. As the monsters reached the stage, a green faced monster was fighting with Mr Lordi. Luckily, the gigantic Mr Lordi won this fight and could chase this zombie off the stage. After an intro, the band began with strong and energetic music.
The amazing monster costumes were impressive and included so much detail you could lose yourself in those costumes. Simply impressive. The band was performing as if it was a huge venue that had sold out and gave all their heart and soul tonight.
The audience highly appreciated it. Everyone was dancing along and singing along, impressed by the powerful performance of the guys as well as their costumes. Mr Lordi was talking with the audience between the songs, getting them on fire to shout and jumps along to the music even more. It was like a theater performance. So professional and real. Lordi is an amazing live band you should definitely check out. Lordi played twelve songs plus encore. And each second was worth the trip here.