13-01-2011 Negative

Supports: Lick; Venue: Effenaar, Eindhoven (Netherlands)
By: Elvira Visser & Sabine van Gameren

Negative has quite a name. Through the years they gathered quite a fanbase, after the release of their latest album, they started touring Europe again and this evening they played Effenaar, Eindhoven (Netherlands)

The support of the evening comes from the band Lick. While this country does not have that many bands like them, their sounds comes quite surprising and fresh to the Dutch. The band had their release out in 2009 and played at several places to the country, and supporting Negative seems a job they suit quite well. It took a while before the young audience that came to this show accepts the band. After a couple of songs there are some fans who have decided to like the band that works a bit as a domino effect in the venue.
The band did not have that much space to move around and it kind of seem to limit them in what they are doing, in some way it seemed a bit insecure at the stage, but towards the end they seemed to have found their place. Their strength of their sound comes from the guitars, which are totally driving the music, though the band had only thirty minutes to perform, which seemed too short to get everyone convinced. They seem to have plans to release some more work, so probably we will hear more of them soon.

After a change over and a fire alarm, everyone was ready for the Finnish Negative to roam the stage. The venue was not sold out, but the audience did scream like it was when the quintet entered the stage. It turned a smile on the faces of the guys even before they had played a song. After their kick off song they thanked the audience and said it was the third or even the fourth time they were playing in the Netherlands. That the band has gained a lot of stage experience is something you can easily notice. They walk around and entertain the audience like they do it every night. Jonne throws in some rock ‘n roll moves while holding his microphone stand and move his hips while the girls in the front row make a lot of photos. It reminds me of Aerosmith and Bon Jovi. The band plays a mix from older and newer songs like: “In My Heaven”, “Planet of the Sun”, Blood on Blood”, and “Moment of Our Love”. Halfway through the set Jonne gets his guitar and plays a slower track, sadly his voice decided to fade a bit and he had a little trouble singing. Somehow it adds a more rough edge to the tracks, which the audience did not seem to bother. There is a moment of calmness when Larry and Mr. Snack play the instrumental “Neverending Parade”. However, right after the track the band gets the energy straight back and with a lot of enthusiasm they seem to play their set. It feels that the break before the encore comes way to fast and the crowd cheers loud to get them back on stage. Of course they do make another appearance and they end the evening with a three song encore. The play “Won’t Let Go”, “Love That I Lost” and with “Misty Morning” the evening came to an end.