11-10-2010 Negative

Supports: Illectronic Rock; Venue: Collos saal, Aschaffenburg (Germany)
By: Nina Mende

Tonight Colos Saal in Aschaffenburg was the place to be if you like Fin-Rock. Negative was playing there tonight for the first time ever. The venue was quite crowded, the audience was mostly people that you would see at shows of almost any Finnish band. Also where there quite many teenager or girls that seemed to have just turned 18. There were not too many guys in the audience.

The first band that played tonight was Illectronic Rock. A local rock band which uses some electro elements. I had seen them a few times before, opening up for other Finnish bands such as Private Line. Since the stage was already set up for Negative, Illectronic Rock had to squish into the front part of the stage. The lights were also set for Negative already, so the drummer of Illectronic Rock was in the spotlight instead of the singer. But all that didn’t matter. Illectronic Rock rocked the audience, got them to dance and cheer along, even to sing along a little bit with their dark melancholic music. They sang a few really slow songs but most of their songs were fast and meant to move along. Illectronic Rock whirled around on stage and used up all the space they had. They talked a lot with their audience. It was a nice opener.

Up next was Negative. Negative is a Finnish glam rock band founded at the end of 1997. Members of Negative cite musical influence such as Guns N’ Roses, Queen, and Hanoi Rocks. The band itself labels the music as ”emotional rock’n’roll”. They are currently touring with their sixth album called “Neon”. The stage was all set up in the style of the album. Graffiti banners, letters standing around next to the drums and keys, skeletons and skulls, also in neon colors as well as other decoration could be found on stage. The audience went wild as the intro began and started cheering even louder as the band entered the stage. 90 minutes full of entertainment, talking and great music was leaving everyone breathless. Jonne talked a lot with the audience, told them stories and jokes. The band rocked around on stage, never standing still for even a second. You could tell they really loved what they were doing. They played songs off all albums including several new ones off “Neon”. They sounded brilliant live. Halfway through the show Larry and Snack performed an instrumental song before Jonne played us an acoustic set with a song requested by the audience, a Finnish oldie and a few other songs. Then the band joined back on stage. The sound was awesome and so was the light. Negative played an encore of three songs. It was a wonderful evening with the Finns.