27,29,30-12-2008 Helldone Festival

Venue: Nosturi & Tavastia, Helsinki (Finland)
By: Nina Mende

Day 1 (Nosturi, 27.12.2008)
The first and extra day of Helldone took place at Nosturi in Helsinki with only two bands playing: HIM and 45 Degree Woman.

Usually the gigantic heartagram is hanging above the audience room but for tonight it was hanging above the stage where HIM would be playing later on. This date wasn’t sold out in advance but the very few tickets left at the door were gone fast so the show was sold out in the end. Nosturi was totally crowded with HIM fans and Helldone visitors, about half of the crowd were probably also going to the main three days at Tavastia.

The first band tonight was 45 Degree Woman. This band has been around for quite a while and is already a well-respected household name in Finnish metal rock circles. Their music is a fascinating combination of genius melodic choruses and metallic power chords, topped with singer Mikko Viman’s brilliant and strong interpretation. The band is also known about their fearless and somewhat unpredictable actions: they are most likely the only rock band in the world, which has taken part in Pamplona Bull Run and shot a music video during the event.

Also fearless of all the HIM fans they began a very energetic, powerful and passionate performance which I enjoyed a lot. The strong vocals and the great melodies made the music cause you an urge for more. 45 Degree Woman got the entire Nosturi to rock along with them and have a great time. Too bad that they couldn’t play longer, but they will release a new album soon and I am sure we will get to see more of them then

Here is what they played:
Never Needed
I Don’t Live Today
Alone
One
Bugs
The Wait
I Believe
Everyone Falls

Now HIM began to play with a delay of about half an hour. All the fans began to scream as the five Finns entered the stage to perform the first Helldone show of the tour before the New Years show at Tavastia. All seemed quite tired and Ville did not open his eyes much during the show but mostly sang with eyes closed. Nor did the band talk much with the audience more with each other. HIM just played the songs. The set list was fairly long but they shortened on the encore because as Ville said they were all quite hung over and tired. They played songs off all albums including the Billy Idol cover Rebel Yell. The fans sang along very loud and cheered a lot after every song. Most of the audience were not Finnish though so they did not understand much if anything at all as Ville said something, therefore he didn’t get a fitting response, just the usual screaming. Some panties, beanies and such flew on stage during the show, even a banana which caught the interest of the band for a few minutes. All in all it was a nice opening show for Helldone, even though they were still a little tired. The audience enjoyed the show a lot.

Here is what HIM played:
It’s All Tears
Wings of the Butterfly
Right Here in My Arms
Buried Alive By Love
Join Me
Passions Killing Floor
Wicked Game
Killing Loneliness
Soul On Fire
Funeral Of Hearts
Your Sweet 666
Kiss Of Dawn
The Sacrament
Rebel Yell
When Love And Death Embrace

Encore:
Sleepwalking Past Hope

Day 2 (Tavastia, 29.12.2008)

Although all three-day tickets were sold out, not all single day tickets were sold out, at least not for this day. This was also the reason why Tavastia was not that crowded tonight. The “Metal-Day” of the festival brought Godsplague, Diablo and Stam1na on stage. Mostly metal fans were in the front row. Spread all over Tavastia was the people with three-day passes.

First band of the night was Godsplague. Godsplague’s music is a mix of heavy, down tuned guitar riffs, overdriven bass and powerful drum grooves. Godsplague musicians are well known and active in Finnish metal scene. Vocalist Nico is also known from his history in the metal band Drive and as the special guest on gigs of Suburban Tribe. ESP guitars supported “guitar hero” Euge is also part of the popular Suburban Tribe and is an ex-Drive member as well. He has also played with Waltari, Leningrad Cowboys, Lullacry and The Black League. Drummer Atte Sarkima is known from Havana Black, Ajattara, Verenpisara and tour drummer of Amorphis. So you have probably seen one or the other member of the band around before if you like this kind of music. The bass player had “I quit” written down in Finnish on his chest, I don’t know why though… As the band played the front rows were rocking along, head banging with their fists up in the air. Godsplague rocked with full power and got everybody going along. Their show only lasted 30 minutes but it was a nice one. The songs got you moving along and sometimes even sing along. Since this band sings in English and talked bilingual most times, everybody understood it.

Next band was Diablo, another Finnish band only harsher. The band was founded in 1995 and has five studio albums released so far. Now the windmills in the front row began to move faster and the fists were more dangerous when tagging pictures in the pit. Several front row metal heads spilled their beer while rocking and glasses fell, but they didn’t care, they kept on rocking. There was even a slight moshpit and a tiny circle pit started for a while down in the middle of the audience room. Diablo jumped and banged a lot on stage as well, they talked in English some times as well. They played for about 40 minutes before their powerful performance was over as well.

Next and also last for tonight was Stam1na, a Finnish singing metal band founded in 1996. They rocked for about an hour or more and got the crowd really going. The mosh and circle pit in the middle of the downstairs audience room grew bigger and bigger, still quite peaceful but big. And rare for Finland! Many people could sing along to the Finnish lyrics of Stam1na and cheered a lot. No wonder that this is one of my favourite and preferred metal bands, these guys know how to rock and especially how to get you going along. The band had fun on stage and everybody else did too. All in all a heavy but great day at Helldone.

Day 3 (Tavastia, 30.12.2008)

Not officially the last day of Helldone because there was still New Years Eve, but my last day of Helldone tonight. It was extremely crowded and many had waited outside for hours already. You could hear a mix of languages when walking through Tavastia or simply towards the bar, but dominating languages were German and English, mostly British. Almost everybody wore some band merchandise somewhere and was totally excited about the evening. For some reason I wasn’t, my friends were though. The bands for tonight were Sara, Negative and The 69eyes. All bands were Finnish again, and also mostly talking with the audience in English as well, or at least in Finnish and English.

First band of the day was Sara. The band was founded in 1995 and sings in Finnish. They have five studio albums released so far. Many people were already squishing in the front rows and there would be no change for the better only for worse in the front row. The people there stayed basically the same. As Sara began it was already totally full at Tavastia and the audience welcomed the band with loud cheering. Sara began playing and it reminded me of a slow and melancholic version of Uniklubi. Unfortunately was the sound of the singer’s voice a little quiet, because up front in the pit while taking pictures you could tell that he has a good voice. Only in the back of the venue that got lost and you could not really hear it that well. But besides that Sara played nice rock music, melancholic, melodic and slow. Great music to sway and dream along! They played for about 30 minutes.

Now it was time for Negative to enter the stage. The show was the same as during the tour in Germany, so was the stage decoration. They didn’t talk too much with the audience, but the fans seemed to still enjoy the show a lot. You could tell that Negative has been touring because they were not as energetic on stage as I had seen them before, but they still tried hard and gave their best. With the support of their screaming and cheering fans they rocked through the performance. Everybody sang and clapped along, danced and had a good time. Especially as Negative performed older songs like Moment of our Love everybody sang along very loud. After about an hour their show was over.

Announced by Bam and Missy Margera and Andy McCoy the next band was ready to enter the stage. Last band of the night were the Goth rockers of 69eyes. For most people the highlight of the evening and for some even the only reason why they were there but for everybody it was great to see these dark Finns perform on stage. With a show that looked like a trained choreography the lost boys from Helsinki rocked Tavastia playing songs from all albums. As Jyrki started the “you suck” announcement I hope they’d follow with the sing Frankenhooker as they usually do, but something completely different was up. One of the last songs was I’m a Rocker where everybody shouted along very loud and danced a lot. Oh what a night of Helldone. Let’s see what next year will bring.