Rock • HIM
puts on a melodic-laden rock show at
the House of Blues Sunset Strip. Matthew
Wilkinson/Summer Forty-Niner
Finnish
rockers HIM sell out the Sunset Strip
By
Matthew Wilkinson
Summer Forty-Niner
Assistant Diversions Editor
Four chandeliers decorated with stage-safe candles hung down from the ceiling
of House of Blues Sunset Strip. The light they gave off broke through the fog
and casted an ominous glow across the stage.
It gave the room the feel of an old European church, one from the Gothic era.
The fog broke and revealed a large symbol painted across the backdrop. It was
a pentagram with two rounded edges — known lovingly as the heartagram — the
logo for Finnish rockers HIM.
It has been a few years since HIM (short for His Infernal Majesty) hit Hot
Topic windows nationwide, but the Helsinki-based quintet has managed to resist
big marketing campaigns by the pop-culture stores and Band-Aid/skateboarding
star Bam Margera (who also uses the heartagram logo on his skate gear) to continue
to be one of the most popular lifestyle bands around.
When singer Ville Valo and crew took the dimly lit stage, it was to thunderous
screaming and applause. There were enough eyeliner-wearing, underage fans to
fill a Boys & Girls Club, but the band didn’t seem to care as it
jumped straight into its 16-song set with “Buried Alive by Love.”
It wasted no time getting to its new single “Rip Out the Wings of a Butterfly.” The
song — which is in KROQ’s regular rotation — is a ghostly
anthem of guitar and keyboards that is sure to get your feet tapping.
“Right Here in my Arms” was next and got the stage lights dancing
with a mix of reds and blues.
Valo wore a beanie cap and a dark suit jacket detailed with a Gothic floral
design. Valo is a chain smoker and has developed an uncanny ability to sing
and smoke. He smokes at least a pack during the set, sometimes not even taking
the cigarette out of his mouth to sing his lyrics.
While Valo has a Goth-rock playboy vibe that has landed him on the front of
several magazine covers, the other members of his band don’t look so
friendly. Bassist Mige Amour and drummer Mikka “Gas Lipstick” Karppinen
both could easily be members of Hell’s Angels, while guitarist Lily “Linde” Lazer
towers over the other members and has big blonde dreadlocks.
It might seem like an odd match, but it proves to be an effective one. Each
member has an amazing knowledge of his instrument.
Linde plays his guitar like he has 12 fingers, switching through power chords
with ease. Gas has one of the most extensive drum kits ever seen, and he wails
on it with no mercy. Keyboardist Emerson Burton easily plays two sets of keys
at the same time while dancing to the music.
When brought together with Valo’s echoing baritone, these elements bring
HIM alive. Valo looks and sounds like a vampire in love.
The band keeps the set a good mix of old favorites with newer tracks. It plays
new song “Under the Rose,” and follows it with classics like “Join
Me in Death,” “Soul on Fire” and “Poison Girl.”
He sandwiches in a very good cover of Chris Issak’s “Wicked Game” between “Killing
Loneliness” and “Vampire Heart,” both from the album “Dark
Light.”
The band brought its regular set to a close with “Your Sweet Six Six
Six,” “The Sacrament,” “Razorblade Kiss” and “Behind
the Crimson Door.”
Valo excused himself and the band for a “leak break” for 10-minutes
before coming back for an encore. It got in “This Fortress of Tears” and
a Black Sabbath tribute, which turns out to be more a chant called “Sabbath
in D Minor.” Valo told the crowd of how Black Sabbath showed him that
good bands from small countries could make it big.
It’s not hard to see why this show was a fast sell-out. HIM put on a
powerful live performance. With such talent on the guitars it would be easy
for the guitarists to be overpowering, but they’re not.
They fit in very well with the ominous keyboards and Valo’s haunting
vocals to produce the very melodic sound that took Europe and England by storm.
With the success of this tour and Warner Brothers Records behind new album “Dark
Light,” it will not be long before HIM claims the U.S. too.
|
