EDITOR´S NOTE: Hello Rocker!
Me and the Hard Blast team want to apologise for these weeks without any updates but I´ve been quite busy covering the summer festivals to give you great photos, reviews and news.
We´ve been also working on new partnerships to upgrade the website and improve our work.
In a couple of weeks everything will be back to normal and you can wait for great stuff!
Besides Tuska Open Air and Hellfest, we were at Ruisrock, Sonisphere, will be at Ankkarock and have done great interviews which are coming soon.
All this traveling will be over soon ´cause summer is unfortunatelly close to the end so, don´t give up on us! We´ll be back even better!!!
Stay rock!
Maila
Stratovarius – Klubben - Stockholm - 09th of February, 2010
Polaris World Tour – Last concert of the European tour
By: Maila-Kaarina Pictures: Maila-Kaarina
Well, dear reader, Hard Blast published a Stratovarius Polaris World Tour concert review 3 months ago, so this is not supposed to be a very detailed one. But you know, it´s always nice to write about bands we like and concerts we´ve been to, specially when it´s possible to compare them in different countries and continents.
Last November they played in Brazil, São Paulo, for at least 2 thousand people (maybe more) in a big concert hall. This time, the concert was in Stockholm, in a small but very nice place called KLUBBEN, for less than 200 people.
It was my fourth Stratovarius concert but the most special one since I could be only 2 meters from them, paying attention to each move and each detail. As a musician, watching Lauri Porra, Matias Kupiainen and Jens Johansson playing so close to me is quite of an experience.
The concert happened on a Tuesday and the band seemed to be tired, but they made a great show for one hundred and something real fans who sang all songs by heart, full of energy and great feeling. Kotipelto´s voice was great, I can say even better than 4 years ago, last time I saw them alive at Live and Louder festival, also in Sao Paulo.
The concert started at about 10 pm. after two local warm up bands: Tracedawn which I unfortunately missed, and Dream Evil, excellent power/heavy metal band that made my night worth even before Stratovarius started playing. They play an undoubted European metal, highly influenced by power and traditional heavy metal with lots of epic spices. Note that alive they are twice heavier than on studio, vocalist Nick Night kicks ass on stage with a versatile voice easily going from melodic to rough with a lot of power and punch. Songs were great and I suggest you to check them out at www.dreamevil.se
Let´s go back to our subject now: STRATOVARIUS!
They started the concert with ”Destiny”, from the homonym CD of 1998, followed by one of their biggest hits, ”Hunting High and Low”, the opening song of the 2000 album “Infinite”, which definitely woke people up. A curious thing was to observe the Swedish audience: they were clearly enjoying, most of the people were singing, and from beginning to end everybody was there, staring at the stage showing some happy and focused faces. But what´s so curious about it? Well, actually it looked like an 80% musicians´s audience. They were really staring, almost not moving, unless between songs where people...clapped their hands!
It was a little strange for me not to see moshpits or screaming fans, however it was obvious that everybody was having fun. Of course there were some screams and whistles, we´re talking about rock and not opera (thank God) but in general it was very calm and peaceful.
”Speed of Light”, ”The Kiss of Judas”, ”Deep Unknown” and ”Million Light Years” followed the sequence and then it was Mr. Johansson´s show time. This guy is really impressive on keyboards since he does a lot with little. He was playing his old and out-of-line DX-7, proving that vintage keys can give us a lot alive. He played Bach, of course...
”Winter Skies” and ”Phoenix” warmed us up for another great moment – and this saying is not usual coming from me since I am not a big fan of ”solo moments” - the amazing Lauri Porra bass solo. Well, Stratovarius got famous because of the former guitarist and band leader Timo Tolkki (Revolution Renaissance, now) who kind of made power metal strong in the world as a style. Now he´s gone and was replaced for another great guitarist, Matias Kupiainen, young and wise with the instrument. But in my opinion, the really outstanding musician at Stratovarius at the moment is Mr. Porra. Lauri seems to be the nicest guy ever, always showing an easy smile and a lot of charisma. Watching his solo makes us breathless as if we had made a lot of physical effort.
The world just disappears and nothing else matters while he is alone on stage playing. Matias had his solo moment too and together with Lauri they played some kind of duel, excellent and good to see also, but sorry, nothing that came after Lauri´s solo could impress me.
The band was back and Kotipelto (talkative, fun and cool) started ”Forever is Today”. The concert was getting to its end with ”Paradise” and ”Eagleheart”, but of course there had to be more. And there was! The encore started with the beautiful ballad from the album Episode, 1996 (my favorite also), ”Forever”. This song is really something. The melody, the keyboards, the solo, everything sounds so perfect and the lyrics are so nice. Everybody sang along with Timo, and at he end I had the ”free hugs” feeling. Well, I´m a chick, I have the right of having my pink moments...I just kept there, staring and singing with the Sweds.
To finish off, ”S.O.S.” and, of course, ”Black Diamond”.
Since it was the last concert of the European tour, Timo did a small thank you speech not only for the audience but also to the crew, a really great gesture. He called all members of the crew to the stage, introduced them to us and asked for applause since these guys really work hard and make the show happen. Guitar picks and drum sticks (thanks for mine, Jörg!) were given, they said goodbye and it was over:(
Very good concert, nice to see them again and always improving, pitty that only a few people could see it...
Hard Blast thanks Pontus Dyrestam for the accreditation. You are great!
Stratovarius is:
Timo Kotipelto - vocals
Jens Johansson – keyboards
Lauri Porra – bass
Matias Kupiainen- guitar
Jörg Michael - drums
SET LIST:
DESTINY
HUNTING HIGH AND LOW
SPEED OF LIGHT
THE KISS OF JUDAS
DEEP UNKNOWN
MILLION LIGHT YEARS
JENS SOLO
WINTER SKIES
PHOENIX
BASS/GUITAR SOLOS
FOREVER IS TODAY
PARADISE
EAGLEHEART
