Lordi, 2006 Eurovision Song Contest winners, performed live in Glasgow, Scotland on Monday 30th October, esctoday.com was there to review the night! Anything but a novely act, rock and roll was peformed to the metal heads of Glasgow in an awesome show!
On a rainy (and I mean rainy…not a drizzle, we are talking about soaked to the skin rain!) Monday evening in Glasgow, everyone gathered at the Carling Academy – the venue finally chosen to host the Lordi tour in Scotland (apparently the Garage wasn't big enough and the Barrowlands was scared incase the pyrotechnics burned the venue down lol).
After a great set from support band, Turisas lasting about 45 minutes and a break of half an hour, the lights dipped, and then the gentle sounds of KISS's God of Thunder blasted over the speakers to rapturous screams and applauds. Then it started……an edited version of the special report intro from The Arockalypse, breaking straight into the first of the Finnish giants entries in their qualifications……Bringing Back the balls to rock…and my god, do THEY rock!!!!
The pyrotechnics used straight away were awesome, you feel and hear them before you see them. I hope no one had a weak heart! We were entertained by the debut album title track, Get heavy….yes they are heavy. More pyrotechnics and great lighting, one fantastic song.
All through the concert there is an Alice Cooper feel with theatrics. It appears that Lordi love Alice just as much as KISS. The next song wass the current European single, Who's your daddy. Again it's a crowd singing, mosh pit success. This was received with great enjoyment, always getting the crowd to participate with the OI OI OI OI and handclaps. A true leader of the masses.
The atmosphere felt like a best of live concert album! More songs included the likes of Pet the destroyer, Rock the hell out of you and blood red sandman.
But wait, how rock and roll is this, The guys n gal of Lordi perform It snows in Hell. Not an odd song at all, but instead of the usual pyrotechnics they have fake snow! Let's not forget that until Lordi, there was a saying in Finland that 'we'll win Eurovision when hell freezes over', so this was an apt addition to the repetoir.
Lordi are a talented band and not afriad of solos, Kita is a great drummer and a great soloist! Not one of your over-pretentious solos, he performed other drum solos including the solo from Motley crue's Wild side, the opening to Alice Cooper's Billion dollar babies etc.
To end the first part of the concert Lordi performed what I think is one of their best songs ever….Devil is a Loser! What a performance. What a singer. What a band! This was one of the definitive sing along tracks they performed……
Encore.
They only come out at night and the beautiful Would you love a monsterman! Rapturous applause – thank you and goodnight!!!
Yup you guessed it, there is no way they are leaving alive without performing their Eurovision Song Contest winner. Awa returns to stage and starts to play the keyboard intro..slowly, teasing the crowd. She doesn't get enough reaction she stops and walks back over to the crowd. Getting cheered and applauded she returns to her instrument, yet she still feels she isn't getting the correct reaction. She stops again and turns her back on the eagerly awaiting audience. More cheers,louder and louder. Finally she returns and completes her introduction to Hard Rock Hallelujah. The rest of the guys return to stage, instruments at the ready, then Mr Lordi appears wearing, not the finnish flag hat, but the St Andrews flag hat, the flag of Scotland! What a man, what a reaction from the crowd.
Thank you and goodnight!!
In retrospect, the stage set was awesome, if the stage itself was a little small. The pyrotechnics were amazing, more amazing than at Eurovision. The music was awesome. The crowd enjoyed every minute of the set performed. I have been to quite a few concerts of varying styles, but from the rock ones….Lordi blew them all away. Better than Iron Maiden, Chili Peppers, Funeral for a friend and Limp Bizkit.
