28 April 2024

06-02-2009 Pain

Supports: Brother Firetribe; Venue:  Mess, Breda (Netherlands)
By: Elvira Visser

Tonight it was time for a new edition from “Staalzucht”, a returning evening with dark music. We all know that the Nordic countries are best in this and that is why many Nordic bands enter the stage on these evenings. Tonight it was time for the Finnish “Brother Firetribe” and the Swedish “Pain”.

Both bands share that the bands are projects from one of the members. Brother Firetribe is a project from Emppu Vuorinen, beter known as the guitarist from Nightwish. Which automatically attracted young girls to the gig, but it was not that bad just a few shouting ones. I think the band had a difficult job, as they clearly play 80s metal and Pain is a bit different. Most people around me had never heard about the band, half way the set after some great guitar solo’s from Emppu, the bands showed that they can deliver a steady 80s melodic rock sound without getting boring.
Singer Pekka Heino is quite charismatic, smiles and looks intriguing at the audience. When asking to clap along especially the first rows follow his example. Not everything goes well during the set but the guys are standing there like they have always been on stage. Most in the spotlights are Emppu and Pekka but Jason Flinck moves around the stage quite frequently and Tomppa Nikulainen seems to build his own party behind his keyboard. How further in the set, the smile on his face got wider. It is nice to see a band that feels at home, even though half the audience has never heard about them. The last couple of songs were the best, but maybe because the crowd started to cheer more, and even singing along on occasion. I think not only the audience became more exited during the gig but also the band, they enjoy visibly from the show and how the audience is responding to them. Two tracks I remember them playing near the ending were “I Am on Fire” and “Heart Full on Fire”, which shows the nice vocal skills of Pekka. A very nice band to get the evening started.

Pain is also a project, or maybe not a project anymore, but a band that has earned his credits in the industrial metal scene. Peter Tägtgren is the creative brain behind Pain, and also known from the death metal band Hypocrisy. When shaping the sound and producing the Pain sound, Peter worked together with In Flames bassist Peter Iwers, Alexi from Children of Bodom and Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee. However it is mostly his work, he needs some musicians on stage to let us enjoy his music. They have been touring with Nightwish, and maybe that is partly reason for them to team up with Brother Firetribe or just their management. Anette Olzon appeared on the latest Pain CD “Cynic Paradise” (review) co-singing on “Follow Me”, which they played early in the set. Clearly some people recognised this and already I heard some singing along. Pain played a long set list and came back even twice. Near the ending of their show someone from the audience had thrown a beer on the front of house, which de-tuned the music a little but after a few seconds of drying the table with a towel and some guys on stage not knowing how this would end, they kicked in a couple of more songs. I think most of the tracks played by them were welcomed with cheering. The small talks introducing the tracks was quite fun, there was something about them all wearing dy-pers and when “Bitch” was introduced he told the women not to take it personal, because he would like the ladies anyway followed by the Dutch “Gatverdamme!”.
I expected a little more industrial but I had only heard a few tracks of them and they pleased me very much playing nice metal with good beats. A couple of tracks that I do remember are “I’m Going In”, “Nailed to the Ground”, “On and On” with a very catchy chorus, “Just Hate Me”, “Have A Drink on Me” which many people around me gladly did. A pit was build during the show, people were dancing or head banging and beer was flying around. Finally they really ended their performance with “Bye Die”

More pictures of this gig available at photographicretentions.nl

Links:
Brother Firetribe MySpace
Brother Firetribe Official
Pain MySpace
Pain Official