All chains only glorify freedom...
Also known as: Sonata Arctica @ Pakkahuone, Tampere, tonight.
So let's see. I'd agreed to meet Random Encounter Mikko at the venue at 19:30 - the support act Sturm und Drang would start at 19:45 and neither of us was particularly interested in them so it was plenty early. I was there a bit early because of bus schedules, and he was a bit late, because he'd lost track of time at work. But it was all cool. We managed to get quite near the stage - not front row, and at some point I was rather missing that fence to lean on, but we had a good enough view most of the time. SuD was not my kind of thing at all, and the guys looked like teenagers - the drummer was the only one who looked like he might be 20, the others looked barely 18 and the keyboard player more like 14. I'm assuming they must be a bit older than they look seeing as they apparently released their first album in 2007... But I haven't checked, not really that interested.
Anyway, then, enter Sonata. They opened with Only the Broken Hearts etc, and were entertaining enough. Tony was exactly as adorable as I remembered, having last seen them live in 2007 (mildly embarrassed by this, I admit)... Can't really compare anyone else, because I never really knew the others by name (except Jani back when he was still in Sonata) nor paid much attention to anyone else than Tony until only recently (yes, Teri, you may congratulate yourself for this; I now know the members of Sonata Arctica by name - again, mildly embarrassed that I didn't before but oh well).
I think these were all taken during the first song - or the first two, but I can't for the life of me remember what the second song was. They played, however, a lot of stuff from Stones Grow Her Name, which I'm sure doesn't come as a shock to anyone, so yeah. Hmm. Black Sheep, from Silence, as well, and Broken from Winterheart's Guild. Tony told us how he'd almost ruined the song (Broken, that is) to Henkka by telling him what he'd meant by the lyrics, because Henkka had had his own interpretation which apparently differed from Tony's. The following picture was taken during Broken.
Yes, I wish the person in front of me had been just a tiny bit shorter at that moment. Anyway... Then, about halfway through, they got some chairs on the stage and they all sat down and played a few songs acoustic - Tallullah, Dead Skin, and a cover of whatsitsface, the Dead Or Alive song by Bon Jovi or something..? I was impressed that they played Dead Skin - it's one of my Sonata favourites in the history of ever and has a lot of meaning to me personally. I was unimpressed, however, with the acoustic version - especially the "I know how you must hurt and I know there is nothing you've done to deserve this!" part didn't live up to its full potential, it needs to be screamed. But anyway, I'm happy that they played it at all, as it was the only song from Days that they played at all. And I really liked Henkka's backing vocals for the Dead Or Alive thing.
Anyway, this brings me to another reason why I was happy with the acoustic arrangement - it meant that Tommy came out of hiding behind his drum kit! I was so disappointed initially when I realised that I could barely see the top of his blond head at the best of times, and had absolutely no chance of getting pictures of him for Teri, but this gave me a chance to capture some of his adorableness as well.
As you can see, he didn't really have much to do there - he did drum with his palms on the... whatever it is that he's sitting on, but most of the time he just sat there and made funny faces at Tony. He actually made Tony crack up totally during Tallullah, after the "long-haired drummer" part, which might somewhat ruin the performance for anyone who wanted to take the song seriously but I had no such issues, I loved every second of Tony-attempting-to-sing-while-laughing-at-Tommy. <3
After the three songs, they began to set up their regular instruments again, during which time Tony did a solo performance of something, some random song from some video game whose name I didn't catch (neither the song's nor the game's), but it was entertaining enough. Have a pic of Tony going country.
Beautiful, isn't it. Anyway, that's the extent of my publishable photos - I did something funky to my camera and couldn't find the right settings again for the rest of the gig and all the pictures I tried to take from there on were really blurry and psychedelic. And I really don't remember in which order they played any of the songs, so blah. They "finished" with Full Moon, after which they played Cinderblox and Don't Say a Word as encores, that much I remember, but the rest is a blur.
All said and done - yes, I was right in that it didn't feel as awesome right after Anathema as it should/could/would have otherwise, but it was also better than I expected, and I enjoyed it a lot, was certainly worth going.
So let's see. I'd agreed to meet Random Encounter Mikko at the venue at 19:30 - the support act Sturm und Drang would start at 19:45 and neither of us was particularly interested in them so it was plenty early. I was there a bit early because of bus schedules, and he was a bit late, because he'd lost track of time at work. But it was all cool. We managed to get quite near the stage - not front row, and at some point I was rather missing that fence to lean on, but we had a good enough view most of the time. SuD was not my kind of thing at all, and the guys looked like teenagers - the drummer was the only one who looked like he might be 20, the others looked barely 18 and the keyboard player more like 14. I'm assuming they must be a bit older than they look seeing as they apparently released their first album in 2007... But I haven't checked, not really that interested.
Anyway, then, enter Sonata. They opened with Only the Broken Hearts etc, and were entertaining enough. Tony was exactly as adorable as I remembered, having last seen them live in 2007 (mildly embarrassed by this, I admit)... Can't really compare anyone else, because I never really knew the others by name (except Jani back when he was still in Sonata) nor paid much attention to anyone else than Tony until only recently (yes, Teri, you may congratulate yourself for this; I now know the members of Sonata Arctica by name - again, mildly embarrassed that I didn't before but oh well).
I think these were all taken during the first song - or the first two, but I can't for the life of me remember what the second song was. They played, however, a lot of stuff from Stones Grow Her Name, which I'm sure doesn't come as a shock to anyone, so yeah. Hmm. Black Sheep, from Silence, as well, and Broken from Winterheart's Guild. Tony told us how he'd almost ruined the song (Broken, that is) to Henkka by telling him what he'd meant by the lyrics, because Henkka had had his own interpretation which apparently differed from Tony's. The following picture was taken during Broken.
Yes, I wish the person in front of me had been just a tiny bit shorter at that moment. Anyway... Then, about halfway through, they got some chairs on the stage and they all sat down and played a few songs acoustic - Tallullah, Dead Skin, and a cover of whatsitsface, the Dead Or Alive song by Bon Jovi or something..? I was impressed that they played Dead Skin - it's one of my Sonata favourites in the history of ever and has a lot of meaning to me personally. I was unimpressed, however, with the acoustic version - especially the "I know how you must hurt and I know there is nothing you've done to deserve this!" part didn't live up to its full potential, it needs to be screamed. But anyway, I'm happy that they played it at all, as it was the only song from Days that they played at all. And I really liked Henkka's backing vocals for the Dead Or Alive thing.
Anyway, this brings me to another reason why I was happy with the acoustic arrangement - it meant that Tommy came out of hiding behind his drum kit! I was so disappointed initially when I realised that I could barely see the top of his blond head at the best of times, and had absolutely no chance of getting pictures of him for Teri, but this gave me a chance to capture some of his adorableness as well.
As you can see, he didn't really have much to do there - he did drum with his palms on the... whatever it is that he's sitting on, but most of the time he just sat there and made funny faces at Tony. He actually made Tony crack up totally during Tallullah, after the "long-haired drummer" part, which might somewhat ruin the performance for anyone who wanted to take the song seriously but I had no such issues, I loved every second of Tony-attempting-to-sing-while-laughing-at-Tommy. <3
After the three songs, they began to set up their regular instruments again, during which time Tony did a solo performance of something, some random song from some video game whose name I didn't catch (neither the song's nor the game's), but it was entertaining enough. Have a pic of Tony going country.
Beautiful, isn't it. Anyway, that's the extent of my publishable photos - I did something funky to my camera and couldn't find the right settings again for the rest of the gig and all the pictures I tried to take from there on were really blurry and psychedelic. And I really don't remember in which order they played any of the songs, so blah. They "finished" with Full Moon, after which they played Cinderblox and Don't Say a Word as encores, that much I remember, but the rest is a blur.
All said and done - yes, I was right in that it didn't feel as awesome right after Anathema as it should/could/would have otherwise, but it was also better than I expected, and I enjoyed it a lot, was certainly worth going.