14-03-2010 Sunrise Avenue

Venue: Colossaal, Aschaffenburg (Germany)
By: Nina Mende

Sold out two months in advance was this show tonight at Colossaal in Aschaffenburg… Nobody expected that and the band was very overwhelmed by that too: Sunrise Avenue was playing an acoustic set tonight. As I arrived there were still many people waiting outside to get in.

The audience was very mixed, from young teenage girls, to adults and older and even complete families with little kids were in the audience. All seemed very excited to see Sunrise Avenue tonight. Sunrise Avenue is a Finnish rock quintet. Their style varies from more dynamic rock (e.g. “Forever Yours”) to more melodic ballads(e.g. “Heal Me”). Their most successful single was “Fairytale Gone Bad”, which reached number one in several countries, and as a result, is one of the band’s best-known songs. 8pm sharp the Finns entered the stage. The audience was cheering out loud and screaming, Samu (the singer) looked like a little school boy that just got woken up by his mother. He had a wide grin on his face as he entered the stage and sat down on the bar stool before he picked up his acoustic guitar and began playing. With a strong voice, gorgeous light and a lot of support by his fans he began. Everybody was amazed how great Sunrise Avenue sound in acoustic. The cheering was loud, the singing along even louder, so the band let the audience sing some parts all by themselves. Each band member seemed so happy onstage and sent out positive vibes that turned the atmosphere in the venue into something magic. All eyes were locked on stage, nobody seemed to be looking elsewhere, and nobody could. It was great to watch Samu being unable to sit still for a second, Osmo dance behind the keyboard, or Riku playing his guitar happily ever afterâ•œ Samu talked a little German, but mainly he stuck with English for tonight, telling the audience stories about how they made some songs happen on acoustic because not each song was so easy to just play on acoustic guitar. Sunrise Avenue played many songs of both albums, but also some cover songs and had a good time. And so did the audience. Sunrise Avenue spread happiness and joy throughout the Colossaal and you could see a smile on everybody’s face. It was an amazing atmosphere. Not only because Samu was joking around on stage all the time and is such a sunny boy, but also because of the perfect sound of all these songs. Samu was always walking around on stage, unable to sit still. Only when he was playing guitar he had to sit. Smiling like a little boy he and the band were so happy and overwhelmed as well as thankful for all the fans being here tonight and supporting Sunrise Avenue. Samu thanked them by singing “Forever Yours”. As later on Samu sat down on the monitors at the front part of the stage, the fans were screaming out loud. Throughout the songs he was also playing with the audience and singing to them which created an even more personal feeling.

After 90 minutes and many gorgeous songs, the guys left the stage. The audience demanded encore, so Riku came back to sing a cover song accompanied by Osmo. Samu finished the last part of the song before they went on playing songs for another 30 minutes. Totally speechless but satisfied and happy the audience was now released to go home. It was a wonderful evening. I hope they will release an acoustic DVD or album.

Links:
Sunrise Avenue MySpace
Sunrise Avenue Official