Turisas / Firewind/ Stolen Babies @ Empire 2/5/2013

Went to see Turisas/Firewind/Stolen Babies at Empire last night with Milla and Lex. Also saw Dorothy and Sarah  (and her crew!), and Jesse there! There was a pretty good turnout, about 150 or so people, it seemed more than Doro earlier in the week. The crowd was certainly rowdier!

Merch wise, Turisas had a flag, no CDs, several shirts (elephant, some one with pillars, a couple others), a hoodie, set of 2 patches, I think shirts were $25. Firewind had a couple shirts (album cover, and some tattoo/affliction style one I think) and their latest CD for a bargain $5 (I grabbed that). Stolen Babies had a ton of stuff but I didn't really look. The other opener Aether Realm had a CD and maybe a shirt- I can't recall and Don't know why I didn't take pix of merch.  The only thing that really grabbed me was the Firewind CD.

We arrived in time to see the last song of Aether Realm. I thought they kinda sounded like Amon Amarth, but more distorted and way less clear /crisp than they are.Pretty good energy, the crowd seemed like it was moving. Their frontman had a bear skin (faux?) like he was Hercules. Would need to hear more to have a more accurate judgement

Stolen Babies, with thier...odd... sound were next. I Didn't like teh samples i heard of their kinda punky, kinda carnival, but all weird sounding music. I could barely hear the accordion, as the bass was overpowering. The funky bass line was ever present, and that was pretty interesting. Someone (drunk) started a pit on the last song (which IMO was def not Pit worthy). They overall sounded competent and way better than expected. Singer reminded me of my sister. Awkward. I dunno, something about them just seemed lacking. the bassist also looks like Kramer (judging by his reaction to the crowd shouting, he has heard that 100 times before- but hey, he chooses to have that haircut). Their songs were kinda ska (funky), kinda punky, and had harsh vox. I coulda done without them, but I think more musician or punky or indie people/tastes could dig them.


Firewind, whom I am a big fan of, was on next- to fully have a jumbled lineup of different bands. They have a new singer now, and I was curious as to how he would sound. My fears were set to rest once he sang old songs and new songs eqaully well. he hit the high notes, but seemed like had a bit less charisma. Gus G made up for any lack in charisma with his super shredding. The crowd got lively when his guitar not so gently weeped \m/ My neck was kind hurtin' after their set. I thought they shoulda played more songs from Allegience. I def got jumping for their last song with the rest of the lot. argh my knees!


Turisas, is a band I like live, but I think they are always not as good as I want them to be. I think its a combination of folk metal fans pitting on songs that IMO are not pit worthy and songs that are good, and songs with not that great hooks (for the most part). I think they are good (hey, I bought a ticket), but that they are overrated. throughout their set I thought they sounded good, despite the violin being mostly drowned out. However- the part that they gave the violin guy a solo, it sounded excellent. I think that was my favourite part last time. So up to the encore, I was feeling Firewind's set was way better. THEN they hit up Sh- and Battle metal AND Rasputin. I entered the pit for Sh- and then Rasputin of course!

The crowd was very rowdy, pits on most songs, jumping, fists in the air, some headbanging, and jigging of course. There was a bit of singing/shouting along, and nearly everyone in the crowd was moving in some aspect, so that was fun.

Lex asked if they were going to play 'Rasputin,' and I had to say that it was not on the GA setlist... sads. So after Battle Metal, the house lights came on, but people were still rowdy. This was the first time I've seen a band actually (allegedly) listen to the people and play another song (unless they had planned that, but 1) they didn't play it before and 2) the house lights already came on). So that was pretty badass. So at around that point I think Turisas pulled ahead of Firewind.

Overall a very cool show- an odd lineup, but everyone sounded very good if not great. Fun people there also augmented the experience. But I still am not as pumped about Turisas as most of the crowd was.


Photos:
Aether Realm
Stolen Babies
Firewind
Turisas
Turisas II
Turisas III


Setlists:

Firewind

• Wall of Sound
• Head Up High
• Destination Forever
• Few Against Many
• World on Fire
• The Fire and the Fury
• Mercenary Man
• Falling To Pieces 

Turisas

• The March of the Varangian Guard
• Take the Day!
• To Holmgard and Beyond
• A Portage to the Unknown
• One More
• Five Hundred and One
• The Dnieper Rapids
• The Great Escape
• Miklagard Overture
  Encore:
• Stand Up and Fight
• Sahti-Waari
• Battle Metal
  Encore 2:
• Rasputin (Boney M. cover)