Killswitch Engage, Revocation, Tenside @ The Circus
Oct 28, 2019, The Circus Helsinki, Finland – PHOTO GALLERY HERE
Usually Mondays are the least likely to be picked as concert date – even though then a show begins much earlier (yet in this case with three bands it still means being out until midnight). There’s a good reason why several venues or bars are closed on Monday evenings…
Hence it means that a band is REALLY good when a Monday show is totally sold out, and I can indeed recommend not to miss Killswitch Engage on their final EU tour gigs (e.g. Germany, Switzerland – dates here).
First on this evening were the Germans Tenside with the task to entertain the nicely filled hall – and indeed they did. A great mix of heavy and melodious and with a Metalcore focus on their music nicely fitting to the headliners. It was also pretty obvious that those guys have a lot of live experience – a great opening act for this evening and I can only recommend to check Tenside out. A pity so many Killswitch Engage fans did not see them as they arrived shortly before the headliner started…
Which means you could still move without problems when the second band was on, Revocation from the USA who shook the foundations of the venue with their highly sophisticated technical Death Metal. Tonight, besides the usual hazzle to be faced in a sold-out venue, we photographers had another obstacle to overcome, quite literally – the pit fence was fixed to the walls, therefore we had to climb over it…
In the short break the mood in the hall felt more and more charged with energy, fans eagerly awaiting their heroes – which exploded into cheers when (after a funny messed-up “Final Countdown” intro) the Killswitch Engage band members entered the stage.
Pretty much all hell broke loose – here hyperactive musicians, there enthusiastic fans – and we photographers caught in between… I’m quite positively surprised that I actually caught some snapshots of those guys. Several times the singer almost stepped on my hands when he approached the fence to reach out to the crowd … And after the photo session the same problem we faced at the sold-out Insomnium gig – you were stuck in the furthest corner and had to wait for a pause in the set to squiggle through the crowd… Only in the very back I finally got to enjoy the gig fully with its appealing setlist: songs from the new “Atonement” but a lot of hold hits, too, which the audience sang along passionately. In between singer Jesse Leach kept thanking the fans, “we are nothing without you”, and he also found nice words for his predecessor Howard Jones, who can also be heard on the “Atonement” album. In short, this band did not only entertain their die-hard-crowd but also kept me mesmerized until the very end – which was “Holy Diver”, by the way – so that I missed my chance to sneak to the exit area sooner. The consequence was being forced to wait for almost an hour longer than planned until the massive queues had dispersed… but despite fences and queues – that was a great Monday evening I would not mind to enjoy more often!
