I had never been in Nosturi until then but walking by that impressive crane (=nosturi) a couple of times before I always thought about how well the whole scenery fits a Killing Joke show. You get in the right techno-fearing, tribal man vs. machine mood already outside of the venue, just perfect. Nosturi has two floors, a restaurant on ground floor and they have all kinds of happenings going on there. Concerts from mainstream to extreme, art exhibitions, theatre plays, you name it. They also provide 40 (!) rehearsal spaces in the basement. I was told the building is even set up with a retractable roof, so if an event demands and the weather conditions allow it, they open that roof like a tuna can and you will literally see stars during a show or party! That wasn´t the case now but trust me, you don´t want that to happen in a Finnish autumn night. And it´s definetely getting colder now...
From inside Nosturi turned out to be a real cool place, too. We went up to the second floor where the show was about to start at 20.15. There is a club that is small enough to create atmosphere and intimacy, but still big enough to hold a good crowd. When support act Kotiteollisuus hit the stage at 20.15 sharp (sharp!) the place wasn´t too filled with people yet. Given the fact that the show was sold out some of those missing people must have had better things to do than watch the biggest selling rock act in Suomi play. And I bet there were better things to do. Their set of 30 minutes felt like an eternity and the music was utterly and mind-numbingly boring. They focused on their harder material only as if they had something to prove. Desperately trying to come across like bad-ass rockers the band had one big problem and it was a crucial one: No ideas to speak of. Their set was like one long song and that song just wasn´t good. Ei kiitos.
Then Killing Joke finally made it up to us for the long wait. I´m not only talking about the 45 minutes it took them to come on stage after Kotiteollisuus, which I thought was a bit nerving. KJ were supposed to play here already on April 29th, I would have seen them in Germany even before that, namely on the 23rd of April. But the whole tour was postponed due to timing problems with the release of their new album Absolute Dissent, and this meant waiting for half a year! KJ didn´t want to tour without the record being released and their show pretty much answered the question why. That brings me directly to the "downside" of their gig, so let´s get it over with because the rest is gonna be praising!
I already guessed this would happen. What songs is a band going to play that has put out 13 incredible albums but ALL members of the current line-up have only recorded two of them together, the first and the latest that is. Exactly! They played six songs from their debut and nine new ones, eight of the latter in a row! I didn´t mind the old stuff, on the contrary I enjoyed it very much. Maybe I shouldn´t whine about the many new songs, they are damn good, but I only knew three of them. My obsessive-compulsive disorder is to blame that I only buy vinyl records and Absolute Dissent is still not out on LP. I was hoping to purchase the wax at the merchandise stand only to find no records at all, which was quite a bummer. So for one part of the show I was rather listening than raising my fist and yelling to my fave tunes. And why they didn´t play Endgame, the teaser (and goddamn hit) for tour and album, will always remain a riddle to me.
BUT: They still were so fucking great, you just can´t argue with class! The quar... eeh, quintet (with keyborder Reza Uhdin) was on a great mood and you felt instantly that they had a really good time themselves, something I regard as very important. Who wants to watch bored musicians on stage? Thought so...
Coleman is maybe not for everybody´s taste with his theatrical performance, starring eyes and gestures soaking with symbolism (?) but there is no way the man leaves you cold. He has an incredible stage presence and he can sing like an angel and scream like the devil. Jaz Coleman is one of my fave singers, hands-down. The typical conspiracy-theory preaching part between songs was maybe a bit much, but...hey, I was done complaining. Kevin "Geordie" Walker is one of the most underrated guitarists in rock history. That guy is a one man orchestra, an army of one. No pretentious solo wankery but riffs to mesmerize and memorize. Absolutely no-one sounds like him. He was standing there, grooving a bit (not too much) to the music, puffing away cigarettes (an offence any other musician except Lemmy would get lynched for in Finland) and churned out riffs with ease any other string-bender would sell his or her soul for. What a cool motherfucker! You see why he´s one of my fave guitar players? The lost sons Youth (getting bald, hehe) and Big Paul Ferguson were great, too. Youth quite obviously enjoyed himself and was moving constantly all over the stage. Big Paul still has the beat and it was great to see him perform Love like blood, the band´s biggest commercial success that is so far from sounding commercial that it´s pure joy! When they played The Wait and Pandemoneum at the end of their regular set all hell broke loose! KJ said their thank yous to a first patient and then very grateful crowd with three encores and I bet they would have played even more if there wouldn´t have been a deadline. It was truly a show to remember and I´m glad I was there! Amen.
Make sure to check out:
www.killingjoke.com (again!)
www.kotiteollisuus.com (to make up your own mind)
www.elmu.fi (Nosturis homepage, choose your language)
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| Zakk Wylde´s little brother? I don´t think so. |
Then Killing Joke finally made it up to us for the long wait. I´m not only talking about the 45 minutes it took them to come on stage after Kotiteollisuus, which I thought was a bit nerving. KJ were supposed to play here already on April 29th, I would have seen them in Germany even before that, namely on the 23rd of April. But the whole tour was postponed due to timing problems with the release of their new album Absolute Dissent, and this meant waiting for half a year! KJ didn´t want to tour without the record being released and their show pretty much answered the question why. That brings me directly to the "downside" of their gig, so let´s get it over with because the rest is gonna be praising!
I already guessed this would happen. What songs is a band going to play that has put out 13 incredible albums but ALL members of the current line-up have only recorded two of them together, the first and the latest that is. Exactly! They played six songs from their debut and nine new ones, eight of the latter in a row! I didn´t mind the old stuff, on the contrary I enjoyed it very much. Maybe I shouldn´t whine about the many new songs, they are damn good, but I only knew three of them. My obsessive-compulsive disorder is to blame that I only buy vinyl records and Absolute Dissent is still not out on LP. I was hoping to purchase the wax at the merchandise stand only to find no records at all, which was quite a bummer. So for one part of the show I was rather listening than raising my fist and yelling to my fave tunes. And why they didn´t play Endgame, the teaser (and goddamn hit) for tour and album, will always remain a riddle to me.
BUT: They still were so fucking great, you just can´t argue with class! The quar... eeh, quintet (with keyborder Reza Uhdin) was on a great mood and you felt instantly that they had a really good time themselves, something I regard as very important. Who wants to watch bored musicians on stage? Thought so...
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| Jaz Coleman. Pure energy. |
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| Killing Joke killing Nosturi |
www.killingjoke.com (again!)
www.kotiteollisuus.com (to make up your own mind)
www.elmu.fi (Nosturis homepage, choose your language)
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