Concert Reviews - Omnium Gatherum

Sorry, this is a bit older than the others but I wanted to add pictures before copying it here.

Mikael had put in a solid effort to get me to start listening to Omnium Gatherum. His most efficient method has been convincing me to go to the show the other day.

We arrived in the middle of an epic storm just in time to get the show. Omnium Gatherum was just about to start and since they were opening, I was able to get right up to the front to watch the show.

Jukka, Omnium Gatherum vocalist

Omnium Gatherum is sort of a melodic death metal band, as far as I can tell. So what to say about them? I can't talk about the set list because I can't name any of their songs (even though I spent the day listening to The Redshift, which is a fantastic album), but it was great. The music was phenomenal, but what really impressed me was the stage show. All of them had so much energy, it was hard not to get into it. In particular I refer to Jukka Pelkonen, the singer. What an interesting guy to watch. He was so in tune with the crowd and he really drew the watchers in. Everyone in the first three rows of people (most of whom were girls, incidentally) got a personal salute from him at some point, including me, with a connected set of metal horns for some 30 seconds or so. He shook hands with the drunk rockers and generally, in the words of Jason Lee in Almost Famous, spent the entire show "getting people off." It was wonderful. I wish more singers really spent time connecting with the crowd this way.

There was also a lovely scene where Aapo Koivisto (keyboards) took the shirt off one of the guitarists (not sure which), and Jukka poured water on his bandmates.

Omnium Gatherum; more band memebers

So, as I'm sure you gathered, I was really happy with the show. I greeted Aapo at the bar for Mikael and met Toni Mäki (bass) at the merch table when I was talking to Kaisu, the sweet girl who was selling stuff. He was an unbelievably nice guy and I was very pleased to make his acquaintance.

Toni, Omnium Gatherum bassist

After some time, Amoral came out to perform. Basically, the story behind Amoral seems to be that they, for reasons I am not familiar with, have recently replaced their old death metal singer with Ari Koivunen, the winner of Finnish Idol a few years ago. In this, the band has had to change their style quite a bit and in doing so, from what I've been told, in the long and short, has lost most of their old fanbase, being replaced with an entirely new fanbase.

My feelings about this, after getting over the fact that Ari looks like he's about 12, were that the music was good. Nice sound, nice playing, nice performance. And Ari can sing... there is no doubt there. However... the combination of the two was questionable, to say the least. Something was not quite clicking for me in this performance and because of it I can't give it a very solid review. Granted, it was still much better than most opening bands I've seen in Canada, but for how good the music was, I felt a bit disappointed by the overall show.

So that's my general feeling about this show. Omnium Gatherum was quite fantastic to watch and gets a definite recommendation from me. As for Amoral... I'll leave that call up to your judgement!

Year: June 2009
Opening bands: Omnium Gatherum was opening for Amoral
Who I went with: Evita and Kaspars, met up with guys from Norther and made friends with Kaisu and Toni
Location: Helsinki - Tavastia