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69eyes07Backstage, Munich, Germany
8th November 2019
The 69 Eyes - “West End” Tour 2019 – Support: Lacrimas Profundere

After an amazing Halloween gig in Helsinki THE 69 EYES set off to haunt Europe, selling out Hellraiser in Leipzig, shaking SO36 in Berlin and sweat with the crowd at LOGO Hamburg, in Stuttgart everyone was blinded by the light but kept on rocking and as time flew by it was time for the gig in Munich so I hoped that in my home-cave - Backstage - it would be the perfect gig for everyone.


Lacrimas Profundere

LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE are a German Gothic-Metal band founded in 1993 focussing on Death Doom Metal, then developed to Gothic Metal and then changed more to the direction of Gothic-Rock. The line-up changed several times over the years and in 2018 the vocalist Julian Larre joined the band. Their latest release, ‘Bleeding The Stars’, is his first album with LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE and his enormous range of vocals opened new horizons for the band. In October, LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE announced that Ilker Ersin (FREEDOM CALL) joined the band as bass player and new band member. www.lacrimas.com / www.facebook.com/lacrimasprofundereofficial

Music & Performance
Since the show was announced as being sold out and local heroes LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE, who had played an amazing at the Free and Easy Festival last summer, would be the support, I made sure to arrive very early to get a good place. The lines outdoors were long, due to the fact that THE 69 EYES sold out the “Halle” and OPETH played in the “Werk”, but knowing my home-bat-cave by heart for over 20 years now, I was sure that there would be no sound restrictions for any of the bands that would play tonight. Operator Hans-Georg Stocker and his dedicated team, who constantly fight the survival of the Backstage, set up a venue where several bands can play at the same time without getting in the way of each other.

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Time to meet old friends and have a look around before the show kicked off. I spotted many LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE shirts in the crowd, a bunch of people in classic gothic outfits and of course those who come to rock whenever a good band is announced. The gig started without fog tonight, which was wise choice because this way everyone in the already packed to the roof venue could catch a glimpse of what was going on in the front. When LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE came on stage, they had a surprise for us, former guitarist Tony Berger replaced Oliver Nikolas Schmid for this gig and was greeted cheerfully by the crowd. The room was packed to the roof now and those who needed a new drink because the band immediately started heating the crows up with amazing guitar riffing and Julian constantly asking the crowd to shout, raise their hand or jump, really faced a challenge to get to the bar and back to their place.

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Munich was ready to rock and LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE were giving them the perfect set to do so. Time flew by and I wish they had time to play a longer set. Julian roamed the stage and jumped and danced and so did the crowd, it seemed that in Munich LACRIMAS were not seen as the support, who often has the unrewarding job of entertaining the people until the main act gets on stage, but as a main act. It seemed as if Tony Berger had never been away and he and Ilker played fantastic riffs together performed amazing solo parts to gibe Julian to chance to catch some breath occasionally. Dominik gave us amazing intros and outros on drums and it was hard to tell, who enjoyed the show more, the band or the crowd. Julian literally gave us the shirt of his back and when it was time for ‘Father of Fate’ his chest was bare which caused the ladies in the crowd to cheer very, very loud.

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A thing that everyone really appreciated was, that the band really got in touch with the fans, making eyes contact or in case of Julian even climbing over the barrier and performing standing in the crowd while performing ‘Father of Fate’. Tonight LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE were the local heroes, treated by the crowd like a headliner and the demand for encore started as soon as they left the stage. If I hadn’t been waiting for the Helsinki Vampires I would have hoped for a longer setlist and I hope LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE will play a whole long set in Munich soon. The crowd was already hot and not only ‘warmed up’ when it was time for THE 69 EYES.

Setlist
01. Dead To Me
02. Like Screams In Empty Halls
03. Celestite Woman
04. My Release in Pain
05. Again It’s Over
06. The Kingdom Solitude
07. My Velvet Little Darkness
08. The Letter
09. Ave End
10. Father Of Fate

Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Light: 10
Sound: 10
Total: 10 / 10

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The 69 Eyes

THE 69 EYES started in 1989 as a Sleaze band in Helsinki and over the years developed their very own style the Goth’n’Roll. The band is also known as “The Helsinki Vampires” among their fans and came over to Germany for the first time in 1998. Things kicked off during the early 2000’s when they went on tour with PARADISE LOST and won over more and more fans. THE 69 EYES constantly toured during all these years not only in Europe but also in Australia, Japan, in Russia and in the USA establishing a big and very dedicated fan base. Celebrating the bands 30th anniversary this year, they found the perfect gift for themselves and their fans, their latest release ‘West End’ with DANI FITH, WEDNESDAY 13 and CALICO COOPER as guests. After the motto “If the prophet doesn’t come to the mountain, the mountain comes to the prophet” you can always meet dedicated fans from all over the world, if they announce a gig in Helsinki and so it was no coincidence that they sold out many venues during their “West End Tour” in Europe. www.69eyes.com / www.facebook.com/the69eyes

Music & Performance
It was loud, it was sweaty and it was already a perfect nights out, when THE 69 EYES came on stage the audience cheering and applauding. There was no fog-machine tonight so I had an excellent view and the light were perfect, so was the sound. The gig started with ‘Two Horns Up’, the perfect successor of long time opener ‘Devils’ and Backstage was a sea of hands showing the horns up. THE 69 EYES rocked like hell and they had won over the sometimes very critical and reluctant Munich audience immediately. ‘Never Say Die’ followed suit and the crowd was more than ready to raise their fists during the chorus part. ‘Black Orchid’ gave us the chance to catch some breath while Jyrki delivered one of his best performances of the song during this tour frequently making eye contact with the audience and underlining the vocals with gestures.

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Then the amazing guitar-intro led us to ‘Perfect Skin’, Jyrki making use of his fantastic range of voice and he simply changed the vocals and added “Munich Style” a thing that caused big smiles on the faces of the locals. ‘Betty Blue’ followed suit and then it was time for a song the band hadn‘t on the setlist for a while and which is definitely one of the songs they should play life more often - ’Borderline’ was released in 2012 with a fantastic video directed by Patric Ullaeus. In my books, Jyrki delivered the best live performance of this song during the tour so far and the lights really supported the romantic mood of the song, while the sound of the guitars and bass was perfectly balanced. I always thought that Elvis was dead but it seemed tonight he came back in disguise of a vocalist called Jyrki Linnankivi. His dancing and posing resembled Elvis shows so much that I was really stunned.

‘Hell Has No Mercy’, a track from the new album ’West End’, is definitely one of my favourites and sometimes reminds me of ’Let Me Put Love Into You’ by ACDC when it comes to the riffs of the intro and DANZIG’s songs coming to my mind when it comes to the vocals and performance. It is definitely a song with the potential to become a new classic among the fans. ‘Crashing High’ saw Jyrki and Timo-Timo dancing their famous circle- choreography once more, accompanied by a big cheer of the fans. Archie as a true biker showed us the correct hand position for driving a Harley Davidson when it was time for ’Cheyenna’ and Munich proved that it knew the lyrics of the song by heart. ‘27 & Done’ was a further highlight, although it always is a strange feeling if the whole venue sings “Let’s all die young” but the line “Best one always party together.” somehow gives me a better feeling while rocking along with my friends.

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Bazie delivered a killer-solo and I spotted some guys in the crowed trying to play the air-guitar imitating him. Whenever it was time for “Hey...” Munich already had the fists in the air. Although Munich and Berlin kind of have a small rivalry occasionally, ‘Feel Berlin’ was the song the crowd sang along the loudest so far and I cannot imagine a show without this song, ever since it was released. Of course tonight Jussi69 fought his personal war with the drums again and succeeded, like every night ever since I saw THE 69 EYES for the first time, Bazie played amazing solos, Timo-Timo and Jyrki danced in their famous circles during ‘Crashing High’ and Archie entertained the people with grimaces and gestures that perfectly suited Jyrki’s lyrics. The fans were often given the possibility to prove that they knew the lyrics by heart and so everyone had a really good time.

When THE 69 EYES came back on stage, Jyrki gave a short telling us that what we were just witnessing the band all the way back from 1989, THE 69 EYES, the true “Helsinki Vampires”. He was frequently interrupt by applauding and cheering people, then thanked the “Bavarian Vampires” and the people wherever they may have come from to attend the show for sticking with them for all the decades “Truly Danke schön!” followed by a big applause and then gave us the best news he could have had “Don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere, you know. We’ll always come back, tell you children to come to see us then” (Big laughter from the crowd) “On you merch-desk there are tickets for gigs 10 years to come, so buy for you children, nephews you know...” (very loud cheering and applause from the crowd) “THE 69 EYES will never die!” The sound engineer let the word “die“ echo a few times and the crowd go even wilder, when Jusi69 gave us the first drum beats for ‘Framed in Blood’.

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Things got wilder and wilder and when Jyrki’s asked us to dance to ‘Dance D’amour’ we really had only a very little chance to catch some breath and get ready for ‘The Lost Boys’. In my books the night could not have become better and I assumed that it was now time for the song that always marks the finale furioso ‘Lost Boys’ but when the first riffs were played, I was confused but the feeling was immediately replaced by absolute maze. The “Helsinki Vampires” played their cover version of THE RAMONES ‘I just wanna have something to do’. There could not have been a better bonus song for the Munich audience, since we enjoyed Marky Ramones Blitzkrieg performing this song among many other during the Free and Easy Festival 2019 at Backstage.

The crowd was ready to join in and raise their fists whenever necessary and it was had to decide who enjoyed the performance more - THE 69 EYES or the audience. It was hot, it was sweaty, it was amazing and now Jyrki asked us “Do you wanna rock?” letting us repeat the procedure for a second time to scare OPETH next door before kicking of ‘Lost Boys’. And Munich rocked as hard as the packed venue made it possible. The band got one of the biggest applauses I ever heard in Munich and you could see big smiles on everyone’s faces. Many bands don‘t survive for 30 years and not many manage to sell out venues in Munich these days, so the “Helsinki Vampires” should take this as a sign of their solid fan base in Germany and keep on rocking in Germany. Listening to the band for 20 years now and having attended many gigs during that time, I came to the result that it was one of the best gigs I ever attended.

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The last gig of the tour takes place in Frankfurt 24th November 2019 and there are several gigs in Europe previously, so if you missed the band, make sure you get a ticket for one of the remaining gigs.

Setlist
01. Two Horns Up
02. Never Say Die
03. Black Orchid
04. Perfect Skin
05. Betty Blue
06. Borderline
07. Hell Has No Mercy
08. Crashing High
09. The Chair
10. Cheyenna
11. Wasting The Dawn
12. 27 & Done
13. Feel Berlin
14. Brandon Lee
15. Framed In Blood
16. Dance D’Amour
17. I just Wanna Have Something To Do
18. Lost Boys

Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Light: 10
Sound: 10
Total: 10 / 10

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All Pictures by Munich Vampire

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