Halle Münsterland, Münster, Germany
11th March 2012
Sunrise Avenue & Jim Kroft
The new album ‘Out of Style’ hit the stores in spring 2011 containing the big hit ‘Hollywood Hills’, still being played in radio on heavy rotation one year later. Due to the success of their tour, the band added several more shows, the last concert of this tour leg was taking place in Münster. About 4,000 attendees were showing to see this show. Different to the first leg of the tour, not THE PUSHER were supporting SUNRISE AVENUE, but Scottish artist Jim Kroft.
Jim Kroft
JIM KROFT swapped London for Berlin, got involved in the art scene over there and got his music out live before bringing out his first album ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’, fuelled by its reception he’s bringing out the follow-up effort ‘The Hermit & The Hedonist’, said to be inspired by RADIOHEAD’s ‘In Rainbows’ album and ‘Urban Myths’ by THE VERVE. On stage, Jim (vocals) is supported by a full band consisting of varying members; for Münster, these members were Ben Barritt (guitar), Ondrij Homola(bass), Daniel Telander (drums, percussions) and George Moore (keyboard, backing vocals). https://www.facebook.com/Jimkroft / http://www.jimkroft.com / www.myspace.com/jimkroft
Music & Performance
Jim Kroft made the first appearance at RoD with his latest album, which was received by our crew quite well. Jim’s name first of all brings up associations with Jim Knopf (a character from a TV series). And there seem to be more people having such association since Jim later also stressed this comparison. Likable Jim was talking a lot during the show, thanking the audience and SUNRISE AVENUE over and over again for this great opportunity. The 5-piece presented a mix of Pop, Singer-Songwriter and emotional energetic rock that was pretty catchy, even though the partly high falsetto chant was not anyone’s taste. Anyone, people enjoyed sweeping songs like ‘Memoirs from the Afterlife’, a very new song which was just presented on this tour called ‘Through my Weakness’, ‘Loneliness of a Vampire’ that was dedicated to SUNRISE AVENUE or ‘Waiting for a healin’’ ending the set. 
With a “Thank you Münster” the band bet farewell to the audience, which was - at least in the front rows - very familiar with the artist’s work, singing along and holding banners and signs with messages for Jim up. Quite a good behaviour to see him later in the security pit giving autographs to the fans. All in all, nice set, even though not overwhelming.
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 6.8 / 10
Sunrise Avenue
Even though the band name brings up thoughts of American states like California, SUNRISE AVENUE come from Finland. These guys are not the first successful band coming from that country is home of such bands as HIM, THE RASMUS or LORDI. SUNRISE AVENUE was founded in 2002 and first the band played lots and lots of life shows all through the home land - with not that much success at the beginning because the audience who is more familiar with Finnish metal, cannot deal with the happy Rock the band presents. The time has come when the band signed a record deal with EMI where also the debut album ‘On the Way to Wonderland’ was released and formed the base for the band’s career, which led the band straight into the Top Ten of Finnish charts. The first live show in Germany took place on 23rd August 2006 in the very cosy Underground Club in Cologne and was also recorded by WDR (Television) to be aired on the “Rockpalast” show. And now anything went very fast; soon, the band even sold out two complete German tours. After releasing ‘Popgasm’ in 2009, the latest album ‘Out of Style’ hit the stores in spring 2011, containing the hit single ‘Hollywood Hills’. 
SUNRISE AVENUE is Samu Haber (vocals & guitars), Riku Rajamaa (guitars & backing vocals), Sami Osala (drums) andRaul Ruutu (bass & backing vocals) supported by Jukka Backlund and Osmo Ikonen (keyboards, strange stuff) on stage. http://www.sunriseave.com / https://www.facebook.com/sunriseavenue / http://www.myspace.com/sunriseave
Music & Performance
It took a bit longer than expected, but finally around 21:15, SUNRISE AVENUE entered the stage, first drummer Sami, who was placed on a podium just like keyboarder Osmo, was enlightened. With a lot of charm, charisma and fun in playing, the rest of the band performed in front of those two. There was furthermore a catwalk built up into the audience to create more closeness to the audience, every now and then used by charming singer Samu. Playing the last show of the tour, the band was extra charged and was carrying the audience away. The setlist was more or less not different to the first leg of the tour. The (mostly female) audience was singing the lyrics loudly - i.e. along hits such as ‘Fairytale gone Bad’, what especially impressed singer Samu, thanking the German audience several times. A bit melancholic about the last German show? I guess so, since the band was going home the other day. One of the highlights of the show came up with ‘I don’t dance’ (accompanied by a huge disco ball spreading light flashed in the hall) for which a little funny story was told when Riku in a discotheque was asked by a German “Frollein” (miss) to dance which he answered exactly with the song’s title.
Then, a long cover medley followed, mostly accompanied by Reggae sounds, when the audience was asked to song along. Within this immense song collections, you got i.e. ‘Ghostbusters’, the title melody of “Dallas”, RHIANNA’s ‘We found love (in a hopeless place)’, SWEAT with ‘A La La La La Long’, ‘The Lazy Song’ of BRUNO MARS, LADY GAGA’s ‘The Edge of Glory’, Bob Marley’s ‘No Woman No Cry’ or QUEEN with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Following ‘Stormy End’ started with a nice guitar solo. During the whole set, there was so much fun on stage, no matter of the sound was harder or softer. And the guys seem to be really happy about playing in such big venues nowadays. Besides, they thanked not only the fans but also the opening band once more. For the end of the main set with ‘On the Way to Wonderland’, the band came even close to Metal when it comes to the guitar work. But this was not the end of the evening yet. The band returned to stage and Samu took a seat with an acoustic guitar to present ‘Sweet Symphony’. Less tranquil, SUNRISE AVENUE moved on, presenting their big hit ‘Hollywood Hills’ and turning the venue once more into a boiling pot.
For this mentioned song, there was also a special fan action. The “Team Arschkrokodil” was starting a call prior to the show, that on the last show in Germany, anyone should say goodbye to the band with self-made signs. And several people in the first rows followed that call. Samu was visibly touched and formed a heart with his hands to greet the fans. The sounds of ‘Dream like a Child’ as second encore finally marked the end of the show, releasing the fans with good memories of a wonderful evening. SUNRISE AVENUE once more succeeded and convinced with they friendly attitude and powerful show.
Setlist
01. Out of Tune
02. Damn Silence
03. I Gotta Go
04. Sex and Cigarettes
05. Forever Yours
06. Angels on a Rampage
07. I don't dance
08. Destiny (Reggae/ Cover Medley)
09. Stormy End
10. Welcome to my Life
11. Fairytale gone Bad
12. On the Way to Wonderland
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13. Sweet Symphony
14. Hollywood Hills
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15. Dream like a Child
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8.3 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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