25-09-2008 Carmen Gray

Supports: Rogue Angel; Venue: On The Rocks, Helsinki (Finland)
By: Nina Mende

A Thursday night at On The Rocks in Helsinki. Like in every other country weekdays shows are not as crowded as weekend ones. So it happened that On The Rocks was not too crowded in the end. It was full, no doubt, but not too crowded.

As I entered the club it was still quite empty. Even as the first band Rogue Angel began playing it was not much more crowded, although Rogue Angel was good. Rogue Angel is a Finnish rock band founded in 2005 singing in English. They rocked the few people that were there and did not get irritated by it. But even got more into it. They played more with the crowd and had more eye contact. Most of the show the singer was wearing shades but took them off closer to the end of the show. The guys enjoyed performing and I enjoyed watching. Sometime during the show the singer started talking German and I really started to wonder what was wrong with the Finnish bands today. It was definitely not because of me. I really enjoyed their show. A passionate performance of great music which was sometimes a little like sleaze rock, but mostly straight rock’n’roll. It was getting more crowded during their performance and everybody enjoyed it.

Now Carmen Gray was ready to get on stage. Carmen Gray is another Finnish rock band, who has just released their second album. The band was founded in 2000, but got the name “Carmen Gray” in 2005. Although they also play rock it was more the radio like rock while Rogue Angel played more serious rock. Carmen Gray is more the singing and dancing along band, and so did everybody. Singing, dancing, clapping and having a great time while the band enjoyed playing their songs off both albums. Niklas and Lappe (guitar) were talking a lot with the audience. Lappe has a really great voice which he got to use several times not only singing the backings but also in some lead parts. Really full and strong, more the country style. Niklas (singer) was playing acoustic guitar during some songs.There was great light on stage but also lots of fog. They even came back on stage for an encore. It was a great and energetic performance, a great closing for a long day and I was ready to get some sleep.

Links:
Rogue Angel MySpace
Rogue Angel Official
Carmen Gray MySpace
Carmen Gray Official