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Jorn Lande – Finland Debut & Fan Reactions

After more than 30 releases in different projects, this man is a living legend among the Hard Rock giants. No matter if as front man of Ark, Vagabond, Masterplan and Millennium or as guest singer in Ayreon and Avantasia, Jorn Lande proves every time his qualities as true vocal artist. With his Solo project Jorn he has been releasing CDs almost every year since 2000, recently the incredible CD/DVD “Live in Black” with the gig at Sweden Rock Festival 2010. Now in 2011 another big thing is coming: Jorn will be supporting Motörhead on their Scandinavian tour dates, which surely will increase the band´s popularity. Still Jorn decided to visit Finland before that, as headliners – actually for the very first time ever! STALKER attended both Finland shows.

Helsinki 26.10.2011
By end October you can still enjoy temperatures about +10 C in Finland, and sunshine – which is quite unusual. Good for those fans who have been waiting in front of the doors of Tavastia, the best known Rock Club Finlands, way before soundcheck time. Jorn Lande does not mind to give autographs on many photos, booklets and Vinyls and to pose for photos. Or to do some smalltalk as well. The soundcheck goes smoothly, the band is kidding around with their own particular version of “Black Magic Woman”.
As Jorn plays without support, the concert begins already at 21:30 h. Tavastia hosts about 400 people who are looking forward to the show. The first notes of Road of the Cross increase the pressure towards the stage. Besides the well-known band members Tore St Moren, Wild Willy Bendiksen and Nic Angileri you´ll discover a new face at the second guitar: Jimmy Iversen, part of the band since September 2011, replaces Tor Erik Myhre. Jimmy has worked with Jorn some years before and took part in the Songwriting for the 2009 Album Spirit Black. Sometimes it seems that Mr. Lande has some voice problems, but he is simply changing songs a bit so that it does not affect the performance. Nevertheless, his vocal range is simply incredible.

Towards the end of the show, many people withdraw to the bar area. The reason might be that some of them do not know his own songs that well and rather know Jorn via Millenium, Masterplan or Avantasia. That music is easier to digest than Jorn´s own compositions – which I personally prefer to those of Masterplan & Co. You simply feel that those songs come straight from the heart.
Wild Willy Bendiksen gives a break to his fellow musicians with his drum solo in the second half of the set, and the audience is cheering him on. But when the first of two encores is played, the crowd is simply going wild – Ronnie James Dio´s Rainbow in the Dark, and it seems the spirit of Ronnie is there, too. The band ends the gig with War of the World. The first of two Finland-shows was indeed something special, and it was nice to see how people appreciate to see their heroes live for the first time. The band performance was great – as usual.

Here some impressions from fans in Helsinki:
Jason Flinck (Singer/bass player of Kings of Modesty/Brother Firetribe):
Jorn has a great voice and it was in a great shape so it was a heavenly pleasure to listen to the guy! Band was also kickin ass so Jackpot if ya ask me. “Little” bit complaining is there that being a long time fan of Jorn, I would´ve love to hear his earlier stuff also from Starfire, Worldchanger and Out to every nation albums. There are songs that ripped me apart in “early days” and I´ve been Jorn fan since, hah! but hopefully next time the set is between 2000 – so we can hear also melodic masterpieces from side to side with lighter touch into draggin heavy. So called cross-section from all the his solo Discography and if even I can pray…few Millennium tracks which I adore, heh !!!…but Helsinki gig all in all: It was awesome !!!

Mika Lehtimäki
Gig was something I can’t describe, even better I expect it could be …hey, the man is king of Rock with the hugest voice of all time !! The band couldn’t did nothing more nothing less to give us a perfect HardRock experience !!! It makes you same time satisfied and humble. Thanks guys, Long live J O R N m/

Jan Carlsson
All I can say is that both shows where great and JORN was for me the most wanted concert of this year. Hope to see them again with Motörhead.

Nevena Hristozova
That, without a doubt, was one of the best gigs I have ever been to. Mostly due to the fact that the band apparently had just as much fun to play for us, as much as we had seeing them! No point to talk about the setlist – it was as expected good, but the atmosphere the guys provided and the appreciation they had for us and the one we had for them – some of the bad-ass-million-$-bands don´t have that and to me it was the thing that made the connection with the band real and what was so precious for me – now I want to go see them again not only ´cause of the music they play, I wanna go see them also for the people they are. Good job!

Kikka Kotimäki
It was my first Jorn gig and I was really positively surprised. Mister Jorn himself was sympathetic, the band was good, the audience really seemed to enjoy it, so what could be a better way to spend time 🙂

Tampere 27.10.2011
After a two-hour trip to Tampere it´s once again time for sound check at Klub, probably the best known venue in town. Jorn play in the smaller part of the club which can host between 300-500 people. The stage is not quite my thing – semi-circular and from some spots difficult to watch, because pillars block the view. When I enter the club, Jorn is again busy signing fan items, and it seems some people have brought the entire back catalogue of everything Jorn has ever been part of. And Jorn patiently puts his autograph on everything, and talks with fans – this is something that makes him likeable. After every single record is signed and all photos are taken, it´s time to go on stage, and it´s an incredibly quick sound check: only half a song, and everything is set.

The setlist on this evening is the same than the day before and contains besides Shadow People mainly new songs like Below, Blacksong, Lonely are the brave and World gone mad. A nice choice, although I miss Duke of Love, Rock and Roll Angel or Sunset Station. In Tampere the crowd is a bit smaller but the more enthusiastic, and even so enthusiastic I have to squeeze into a corner not to be harmed by elbows… Bass player Nic animates the crowd to cheer and sing along, while Tore St Moren shows his incredible guitar skills. Just like on the previous day, the middle of the set features a drum solo, which seems to be shorter, though. Among the fans you can see also Enduro champion Mika Ahola, who is a big fan of this band – you can read his review of the show and about his meeting with Jorn here: http://mikaahola.blogspot.com/.
All in all you can say that Jorn conquered the new territory Finland by storm – and there´s no doubt that this band is very welcome here, too. Both shows were amazing – this is the opinion of the fan´s majority, too.

photos: Sandy Mahrer

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Sandy Mahrer

Fresh Act editor, reports, reviews, photos - - - Favorite genres? - Hard Rock, Heavy Metal and Pop-Rock etc. Less Death, Black, Grind Core