Tavastia, Helsinki, Finland
31st October 2020
Lost Society
Halloween at Tavastia 2020 and a perfect show at 16:30 to get us ready for the fun. We are talking about Finnish Thrash Metal band LOST SOCIETY and their first show at Tavastia after releasing their new album ‘NO Absolution’ earlier this year. The show had to be postponed several times due to different reasons, but now it was time for a Thrash storm.
Let’s talk the elephant in the room first, so you might get an impression how Tavastia worked a miracle and organized a show that would be safe for the fans and the band during a pandemic that sees a rising number of infections every week. Before you can enter the venue, you have to generate a QR-code providing all your contact data. Signs remind you to keep your distance and hand sanitizer is provided everywhere. There are plenty of seats provided upstairs and downstairs and the places for standing are divided into rows that allow a maximum of 12 people in one row, barrier tapes make sure, that there is space between them. Wearing a mask is highly recommended and they are available at the bar and at the merch for those willing to wear them. Before the show starts, announcements in Finnish and in English remind you of the recommendations and the safety rules. https://lostsocietyfinland.com / https://www.facebook.com/lostsocietyfinland
Music & Performance
LOST SOCIETY had sold out both shows at TAVASTIA that day and people started to wait in front of the club a good while, before the show started. The atmosphere before the show began could be described as positive excited and when the safety announcements started and you knew the show was about to begin, soon. The intro was ‘This Is Why We Ride’ by BODY COUNT and you could feel the excitement of the crowd growing second by second. Drummer Tay was the first one to enter the stage and the crowd already grew wild. The rest of the band followed suit and with brutal intense riffing they started the show that would become a blast for sure with ‘Nonbeliever’.
If you have attended LOST SOCIETY performances live, you might know that the live versions of their songs are a lot faster and harder than on the album releases and this was the case with ‘My Prophecy’ as well. “The show must go on!” I thought when, the strap of Sammy Elbanas guitar ripped off, his attempts to fix it during the performance failed and he simply completed attacking the strings as usual only with standing rather still, resting his leg on a monitor to keep the instrument in balance. After the guitar was fixed with the help of a tech, he seemed to have thought he had to make up for not being so wild on stage during the last song and put double energy in ‘Deliver Me’ and Arttu Lesonen on guitar felt invited to add an amazing and powerful guitar solo to it.
I was curious what would happen during the next song, which was ‘Blood On Your Hands’ for a mosh-pit would have been an absolute no-go in these times. The crowd acted responsibly and you only saw people jumping and banging their heads as if there was no further song to come tonight and all the energy had to be released now. Then followed one of the best performances of the guitar players I ever witnessed. Sammy and Arttu had a solo battle and I caught myself holding my breath. This several minutes long display of their shredding abilities was a sheer blast. The audience’s reaction was fantastic and it was hard to decide who had enjoyed this performance more, the guys on stage or the audience. As soon as the other guys were back on stage, the second half of the show was marked by ‘Antidote’ and it seemed LOST SOCIETY were determined to drive the people at TVASATIA mad.
Another Highlight was ‘Pray For Death’ with Sammy delivering the lyrics perfectly adjusted to the mood of the crowd. Then it got a tiny bit calmer for a few moments with intro of Into Eternity’ a song LOST SOCIETY has recorded together with APOCALYPTICA, and after a rather slow beginning the song developed into an enormous display of power and the crowd totally caught the mood of the song, reflecting it with their interaction. The solo parts of the song are fantastic guitarwork and the live performance was even better than on the album and I totally forgot the world around me. At this point of the show, LOST SOCIETZ had played live most of the tracks of the new album ‘No Absolution’ and those who had hoped to hear all the new tracks live were rewarded and if you observed the crowd, you could see that the new music was highly appreciated.
‘Riot’ indicated that the show would be over soon and you should warm up you neck-muscles for the grand finale. A show without these special circumstances would have seen a massive pit, but once more people behaved responsibly. LOST SOCIETY saw us of with ‘No Absolution’ and the enormous amount of energy and power of the band and the people filled the whole Tavastia, after the show ended. Time really flew by and I left Tavastia full of energy and I hope I’ll see LOST SCOIETY live on stage again, soon. In these special times, it’s not easy to cover live gigs, so my thanks go to Sile at Nuclear Blast, Niklas at Grey Beard and our editor in chief Dani Vorndran for making this possible.
Setlist
01. Nonbeliever
02. My Prophecy
03. Deliver Me
04. Blood on Your Hands
05. I Am the Antidote
06. Mark Upon Your Skin
07. Artificial
08. Pray for Death
09. Outbreak (No Rest for the Sickest)
10. Into Eternity
11. Riot
12. No Absolution
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 9
Sound: 10
Light: 7
Total: 9 / 10
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