06-11-2010 Tarot

Supports: The Man Eating Tree; Venue: De Boerderij, Zoetermeer (Netherlands)
By: Sabine van Gameren

Two Finnish bands on the road through Europe. Tarot and The Man Eating Tree. Tonights show was in Zoetermeer (Netherlands).

The Man Eating Tree was definitely a name that got many people question. Right before the show started many people talked about them, not knowing what to expect. Drummer Vesa Ranta (known from the band Sentenced) is the one who started this band. In the initial idea Miika Tenkula (also Sentenced) was part of it too, but unfortunately he passed away. The band formed further with other musicians and took off. But, Miika isn’t forgotten let’s stay absolutely clear about that. The band honored him with a song in their set, “‘Nights In White Satin”, originally by The Moody Blues. This song is also on the band’s debut album called “Vine”. Although it seems that most people in the audience were not aware of Miika and Sentenced, the song made them all go silence which was a special moment.

Those who have heard the band’s debut, might have noticed that the band is more raw on stage. It seems to be a bit more expressive in either the words by vocalist Tuomas Tuominen as well as the guitars by Janne Markus, who can really showcase his skills with this band. When they played their first single “Out Of The Wind” you can actually hear a reference to Sentenced their The Cold White Light” album when listening to the guitars. All these intensity seem to surprise the audience who mostly came to see Tarot but to judge their responses, the band have reached some new fans tonight. A good show.

Tarot was headlining, the band fronted by Marco Hietala seemed to be up for quite a different show experience. Call it concert-cabaret. Marco takes a lot of time in making utterly long stories with a funny end to it for in between the songs. Often setting himself as a man that just says what he wants to say. When a fan starts screaming towards them in a moment of silence he tells her to shut up as he wants to start singing soon, right in these words. Not that anyone seemed to care, the man gets away with it easily. Also he is taking care that this show is not turning into a one man’s ego performance, but gives honor to all of his band mates time after time. Seeing what walks around in the audience the conclusion is clear: the band knows a loyal fan base. Many of the visitors have seen the band before. As a conclusion of their show, we must say we are impressed. Their performance at Tuska festival this summer was from a total different level, this time they actually seemed to enjoy themselves doing what they do. This makes it easy to say that Tarot is a band you just love to see in the cozy atmosphere of a venue rather than on a large festival area where a show like this gets totally impersonal and bleeds dead.