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Zeche, Bochum, Germany
9th November 2006
Negative, Jann Wilde & Rose Avenue

Finish Glam rockers NEGATIVE are just on the road again. Seeing them at the AMPHI FESTIVAL I knew that would be a hard evening for me with hundreds of female fans. The concerts was supposed to start early at 19:00. Then I arrived at the venue half an hour earlier, the parking lot seemed quite empty, but when I entered the Zeche it was just now totally packed. I knew this promised an emotional concert. Together on tour with the “stars” are JANN WILDE & ROSE AVENUE, a fresh and new band from Finland.  


Jann Wilde & Rose Avenue

When you search the net you not really find a lot of information about the band yet… besides some texts in Suomi what isn’t really helpful. The band started in 2005 and since then they won lots of fans and hearts rapidly. They gained quite an enviable foothold in native Finland with their theatrical performances and their shameless “bubblegum pop tunes”. JANN WILDE & ROSE AVENUE are Jann Wilde (vocals and guitar), Ardé (guitar and backing vocals), René (bass) and Tender Rexx (drums). www.jwra.net/ / www.myspace.com/roseavenue



Music
Wherever the band appears they won’t go unnoticed. They are charming when presenting their flamboyant glam rock and seductive sweet pop. Their music is obviously influenced by the Glam rock of the 70s as well as New Wave of the 80s. Anything is wrapped up with a pinch of punk attitude. And I am sure you’ll hear more of that band in time because of the fact that they are just now in the first round of the Eurovision Song Contest in Finland. Eurovision Song Contest? Finland? Does that ring a bell? ;) The band is really well acting together; no doubt that they are good musicians. For the last song “Perkins”, Jann was imitating Elvis Presley pretty well… especially the voice sounded close to the idol. The sound was quite good mixed this evening, not too loud and none of the instruments was over sounding the others.

Performance
When the boys came on stage they definitely made people looking amused. They looked quite extraordinary in their glam outfits - especially singer Jann in his white-pink glitter Elvis-Presley suit and the hair which looked like an exploded mop. The whole band looked very you which you could recognize for example on the bare chest of the singer… without a single hair and very smooth. Singer Jann is very expressive on stage playing with a certain gay attitude… no idea if they are gay or not. Anyway, girls screamed up to them constantly. Not only because Jann was pushing them up from the start but also because the band hit the taste of the audience. And in fact they were the perfect support for NEGATIVE.



Jann was talking a lot; dedicating “Nothing but the sky” to the bus driver or introducing the band just before “Mr. Wilde” in bloomy words… the “Rock ‘n’ Roll god Ardé”, the “gangster on bass” René and the “beautiful boy behind the drums” Tender Rexx. The show was full of fire. Ardé and Jann were posing together; Jann was jumping around with the guitar or playing little pantomime during “Nothing but the sky”. Jann several times acted and reminded me a lot of Frank N Further from the Rocky Horror Picture show. Quite fun to watch indeed. The interaction with the audience was perfect. “Lover, Lover, Lover” was announced with “shall we do a little sing along song? First step is to clap your hands”. It worked like a charm. People were just clapping within the beat of the bass drum. Even though the band just released a single you could recognize several people singing along the songs… whether they have seen several concerts or knew the band another way. When the last song started with the words “we’re gonna play one more number. Then you’ll get NEGATIVE”, loud screams floated through the hall and anyone was hot to see the band they came for. When the band had ended, they handed out their printed setlists and some plectrums to the audience. Very friendly! I must say that I really liked the show. It was fresh, inspiring and entertaining. Go on like this, boys!

Setlist
01. Boys out of New York
02. Fine day for Revolution
03. Every Heartbeat
04. Nothing but the Sky
05. Oh Oh
06. Mr. Wilde
07. Metropolis
08. Lover, Lover, Lover
09. Song for those who
10. Suicide Radio
11. Perkins

Rating
Music 8
Performance 9
Sound 7
Light 6
Total 7.9




Negative

Until now, NEGATIVE have gained quite a big fan base – mostly consisting of girls obviously. Some of the fans were waiting since the morning hours in front of the venue to make it to the first row and be as close to their idols as possible. The Glam-Rock band from Finland was founded 1997 in Tampere. Sometimes NEGATIVE is categorized as Gothic Rock, but that’s not quite true; the band itself calls their style “Emotional Rock”. Their musical paragons are bands like GUNS N’ROSES or AEROSMITH what you can recognize not only in NEGATIVE’s music but also in their appearance. The debut album “War of Love” was released 2003 and was a big success in native Finland. In September 2004, the second album “Sweet and Deceitful” followed. The first single out off it – “Frozen to lose it all” – climbed to the top position in Finish charts immediately. In 2005, the band played their first festivals in Germany and later in autumn a first tour followed. Together with HIM and THE RASMUS, NEGATIVE were touring in 2006. The whole tour was very successful. End of September 2006, the third album “Anoretic” was released followed by a tour through Germany again. NEGATIVE are Jonne Aaron (vocals), Larry (guitar), Sir Christus (guitar), Antti (bass), Jay (drums) and Snack (keyboard). www.negative.fi/ / www.myspace.com/negative



Music
As expected, of course the current album “Anoretic” was promoted during the shows and so songs out off that album had quite some space within the setlist. So, the show started right away with the actual song “Glory of the shame” which also could have been found on a GUNS N’ROSES album. Anyway, the current release is full of great music somewhere between ENTWINE, THE RASMUS and the above mentioned bands. Alternating with some older songs, next new ones are “Reflections” presenting a great chorus and “Sinners Night / Misty morning” which is pure Glam-Rock with piano lines. Those new songs were followed by “Naïve” and “The moment of our love” from the debut album. Especially those two songs hit the hearts of the fans. Very emotional – even a bit cheesy – it went on with “A song for the broken hearted” that was announced by Jonne with the words: “Time to come down. A new song for you guys. A song for the rainy days”. “One last shot” and “Planet of the sun” were the other two new songs in the main set. First one is quite interesting with use of dramatic sounding strings – of course not played live. Second one was again something for the girls – very emotional. Of course the main set contained several classics from the other two albums as well… one of the highlights surely the great “Frozen to lose it all”. The first encore consisted again of new songs – the also with strings working “We can’t go on” and the smooth “In Memoriam”. Very last song was “Heroine” which seemed to be a favorite of the fans. Most songs were newly arranged for the live performance containing longer passages and solo parts for different instruments. The sound was a lot louder than during the support band and from time to time slightly booming.



Performance
During the rebuilding break, you had the chance for a closer look at the stage design. The whole stage had something of circus atmosphere. There was a huge backdrop with the clown face of the current album hung up. On the sides there were two canvases with fantasy drawings. Behind them, several small light elements were mounted and during the show they were lit up. The big speaker on stage was covered with a flag showing a cannabis leaf. In front of the drum set there was some metal construction looking like a locomotive. On the keyboard, heavy metal chains were hung up and a green plastic snake was mounted. Of course the metal microphone stands looking like chains for Jonne and Sir. Christus could not be missed. The one of Sir Christus had some transparent plastic tube mounted looking like a giant straw. Later I learned that he was making some strange noises with that tube. On both sides of the stage, black and white checkered podiums were placed to make the circus complete. Just before the start of the show, several girls were screaming for water and finally they got some handed over by the security… which was very friendly and helpful during the whole concert.



When the introducing circus music started, the band entered one after the other the stage. All were dressed wild… Jonne was wearing tight striped pants with a short frills skirt over it and a vest showing the words “Cash from Chaos” on the back. There was a lot of power and energy on stage right from the start. The guys were jumping around, posing, animating the audience or shaking their hips which – of course – made more than one girl scream. During the whole show, several things were flying up to stage – tiny panties, bras, artificial and real flowers. In the middle of the show, even one girl was lifting the shirt what Jonne made to have a closer look. Later on he had quite some problems to sing “Frozen to lose it all” because he had to laugh. The whole band exactly knew how to handle the audience and make them scream. They were flirting with the girls – especially Jonne and Sir Christus – and shaking their butts; they were putting off the shirts and sticking out the tongue or waving the micro stands. Even Jonne’s spitting around was appreciated by the audience. Sir Christus’ sliding over the stage on his butt was equally acclaimed as Antti’s head banging and shaking his hair. It was just Rock ‘n’ Roll behavior. Of course the boys were using the two podiums at the sites a lot too. But the show also had its calmer moments. During “A song for the broken hearted” Antti was sitting down on the left podium to play his chords. Several lighters were lit within the audience. The mood during the whole show was great. People were dancing, singing and clapping everywhere – down at the floor and up at the gallery. The whole scenery was lit up by glistening bright colorful lights. The band was in a very good mood, laughing a lot, and so was the audience. As some kind of tradition roses were handed over when the show had ended – a perfect finish for a perfect show.



Setlist
01. Glory of the shame
02. In my heaven
03. Bleeding  
04. Reflections
05. Sinners Night / Misty morning
06. Naive
07. The Moment of our Love
08. A song for the broken hearted
09. My My, Hey Hey
10. Lost Soul
11. One Last Shot
12. Planet of the sun
13. L.A. Feeding Fire
14. Frozen to lose it all
15. Until you’re mine
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16. We can't go on
17. In Memoriam (Immortal Peace)
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18. Heroine

Rating
Music 8
Performance 9
Sound 7
Light 8
Total 8.2



More pics at Black-Cat-Net
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