Aladin, Bremen, Germany2nd May 2024
Ville Valo - “Neon Noir Tour 2024” - Support: Zetra
When I arrived half an hour before doors, a very long line bending around the corner indicated that people were ready to wait for hours in the sun to secure a good spot tonight. Plenty of cars circled the area, looking for a parking spot, so there would be an even longer line, whenever I would find a parking myself in a distance of a few miles walk.
Zetra
ZETRA are a duo from UK who recently got signed by German label Nuclear Blast. Aladin’s stage is pretty high for club standards and unfortunately ZETRA had the idea to present themselves standing on high platforms clad in fog. From the media pit you could hardly see them and when we had to leave the pit and took a look from the entrance, you couldn’t see them at all. Anyway, the crowd seemed to be warmed up, when the duo left the stage.
Ville Valo
After HIM broke up in 2017, front man VILLE VALO teamed up with AGENTS releasing an album and playing shows in his home country and it didn’t seem, that Ville would come back to the Goth clubs of this planet. During the pandemic, Heartagram’s social media suddenly indicated that something might be happening soon and VILLE VALO released new music, while nobody could tour to promote their music. No need to say that the songs became hits and a bit later a full-length album called ‘Neon Noir’ was released.
Music & Performance
The musicians came on stage first and under loud cheering from the crowd, Ville came on stage. The audience was clad in black and it seemed that some fans who were old enough to have attended HIM’s first gigs in Germany had brought their kids to see VILLE VALO tonight. The setlist was an even mix of Ville’s solo releases and old HIM fan favourites and compared to the gig in Munich I attended last year, the vocals were a lot better tonight, reminding me of shows I attended more than two decades ago. Unfortunately, this cannot be said about the guitar solos, as well. Ville interacted a lot with the fans and so we had lots of hands in the air or choruses sung by the audience and when it was time for ‘When Love and Death Embrace’, the closing song of many a HIM show over the decades, some fans had tears in their eyes.
It was a great night full of memories and a night to remember and I’m sure, a new generation of fans is longing for new releases and more lives shows from today.
Setlist
01. Neon Noir
02. Right Here in My Arms (HIM song)
03. Run Away From the Sun
04. Rip Out the Wings of a Butterfly (HIM song)
05. Salute the Sanguine
06. The Kiss of Dawn (HIM song)
07. Loveletting
08. Buried Alive by Love (HIM song)
09. Heartful of Ghosts
20. Gone With the Sin (HIM song)
21. In Trenodia
22. Poison Girl (HIM song)
23. Echolocate Your Love
24. Join Me in Death (HIM song)
25. The Foreverlost
26. The Funeral of Hearts (HIM song)
27. Saturnine Saturnalia
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28. Killing Loneliness (HIM song)
29. Baby Lacrimarium
30. When Love and Death Embrace (HIM song)
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Light: 6
Sound: 8
Total: 7.8 / 10
All Ville Valo Pictures by Munich Vampire, Zetra Picture by Iryna Kalenska
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