Polanski / Mørket

07.10.2016 Semifinal, Helsinki

So it’s Friday night and The Cure has been the talking point all over facebook here in Finland. Their first visit to Finland in many years has seen a lot of love on the Finnish side of social media. Not the biggest fan myself, so I get myself down to Semifinal to see Polanski, an act not unfamiliar to regulars of this site (a featured Fresh Act a while ago).

On arrival it seems the Friday night curse has struck and the venues is empty. It doesn’t stop Mørket from tearing the venue apart with their brand of black metal shaken (not stirred) with punk and all thrown together. Often regrouping with their backs to the audience, these guys know what they want to do, and their singer is more than willing to spend a large chunk of the set pacing out his feelings infront of the stage. Not my taste, but hell, they were intense, and they grew the crowd pretty well.

Polanski are calmer, more 90’s, and obviously the band many have come to see (the crowd is now larger and substantially more in the mood to dance). The singer pull the stoner poses, and despite having a retro feel, they have something which differs from many bands of their genre, originality. It’s not often I get caught in an audience willing to dance (or maybe up-tempo swaying is a better description) and sing along in Helsinki, but this is one of those moments. A quality show, minimal lighting to distract, and generally left me wondering when their next show is…I’ll be there!