Il portale della musica Heavy Metal

Manzana + Lunar Path - 2/17/2011 - DOM - Helsinki

For the first time (after checking out the place about ten days before) I’m officially at the new DOM, formerly known as Dante’s Highlight, which with its new ambitious and promising look seems more appealing also to the average rock fan, rather than just the dark and grumpy metalhead. But the polished and renewed style of the club is not the only thing that changed. Somehow they managed to make it bigger, brigther, the light are much better and the acoustic appears to have improved as well. So far so good!
I was really looking forward to test this new place “on field”. The chance finally comes as Lunar Path finds its way on stage, to begin this double female-fronted evening. The band has a brand new single out in these days, and fresh material to be finally tested, waiting for the release of their first full-lenght.
The show starts right away with the new single, “Promise Me”, and actually most of the set is based on the upcoming record, from “Thin White Lines”, to “Nothing To Regret”, their music keeps the trademark of the previous releases, but manage to sound original and promising, even though we still have to wait to hear it on cd.
The good impression of the songs, clash with the fact that the place is nearly empty! What happened to all the people? It just happens to be the night of the “Industry Day” of this year’s Finnish Metal Expo, so most of the metalheads of Helsinki are probably watching Tuomas Saukkonen and his Before The Dawn.
The performance in itself is quite enjoyable, as it ends with “Drag Me Down To Hell”, which I had the chance to hear already back last year in the smaller Semifinal. And the new venue is a good frame to attend to such a nice show. Now let’s wait for the album to come out, and let’s drag more people to see these guys from Porvoo!

It doesn’t take too long for Manzana to get everything ready for their show. These guys appear to be quite eccentric, and I confess I didn’t know much about the band except for a few hits on the radio before tonight. I have to admit thought that the gig itself is somehow entertaining, and the guys seems to really have fun on there despite (or maybe because of) the lack of audience.
Their mix of metal music with nineties pop/rock is not exactly my cup of tea, but I can adapt for once, and it’s good to have an open mind sometimes. The restless singer Piritta Lumous during the show loses her huge stylish glasses, necklace, boots, and keep jumping all over the stage, which is a bit of a show in the show.
Among the songs performed during the night we find “Panda Girl”, “Demolition Doll”, “Everything But You” (from the latest “Industrial Hippies”), as well as older material from the debut, like “Falling To Pieces”. The groove is good and the four guys seems to know well how to do their job, making me want to check maybe a little more on their music. Nothing to complain about really, and a good ending for this relatively quiet night here at DOM.

In conclusion a positive evening both for my expectations toward the renovated music club and the two gigs. And it looks like there’s always something new (or not yet seen) to discover in the local music scene!
The downside of tonight? Of course the crowd, who should be more supportive with their bands. So you better be there next time!


Photos:
Manzana


Lunar Path


Report a cura di Marco Manzi