Apocalyptica - The Way of the Finns
I’m in Finland for three weeks now and what would be a better way to integrate with the Finns than visiting one of the most popular Finnish bands in the world, Apocalyptica? So, I took my (very big) jacket and my scarf and went to ‘Tavastia’, the venue.
The thing that surprised me at once is the fact that the concert started very late. The venue opened at nine o’clock and the gig started at half past ten. Another ‘weird’ thing is the fact that the actual stage-room opened an hour after the opening of the venue, which made me wait for an hour at the bar.
But then, finally at half past ten, the band entered the (pretty small) stage and started to play. The first couple of songs were quite ok, but nothing more than that. I mean, the band is on the road for such a long time now, that the concept, four guys with a cello and a drummer, isn’t overwhelming that much anymore. But during the beginning of the set, it all disappointed me a little bit. The band wasn’t moving that much and the crowd was pretty descent. After every song, a respectful applause was given, but nothing more. During the songs, however it was surprisingly quiet, except for the band of course, which made a huge impact during Nothing Else Matters. I had never ever experienced a band playing a song with no other ‘noise’. Nobody in the crowd spoke, there were no cell phones ringing and even the drums were absent, just the four cellos. I’m not quite sure if the band has experienced this that much before but the passion I saw in the faces of the guys was incredible. They were constantly keeping an eye on each other, smiling, guiding their selves and as a result of this I could almost see the emotion flowing through vibration of the strings.
I might be wrong, but from my opinion, this song changed the whole thing, because afterwards, the guys turned from their seats, holding their instruments above their heads, banging their head and were constantly contacting the crowd. The set list contained songs like ‘Bittersweet’, ‘Hope’ and the incredible version of ‘Enter Sandman’.
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