VV aka Ville Valo, best known for fronting the Finnish band HIM kickstarted his US tour two weeks ago and stopped by the Belasco Theater on April 18th for the first of two nights in LA. After a two months long Europe tour, VV is now cruising though the American leg of the Neon Noir tour, promoting his first solo album, Neon Noir. Despite the theater capacity being 1.500 people, the line outside the venue seemed endless. Thankfully for the fans who didn’t manage to score tickets for this sold-out show, a second date was added the following day.
At 8 PM on the dot, the lights went dark and Kælan Mikla walked up on stage. As the first synthesizer notes resonated in the venue, the lights started dancing through the smoke on the stage. The Iceland trio blends cold wave with folkloric rhythms, resulting in a dark and dreamy sound. Although sung in Icelandic, the stage theatrics and angelic voices ignited the crowd’s imagination. The atmosphere seems to constantly walk a thin line between dream and nightmare. Songs like “Stormurinn” and “Kalt” were extremely well received by the audience. After a thirty-minute set, the whole crowd cheered and clapped, still under Kælan Mikla’s spell when the lights turned back on.
By 9 PM, time came for the lights to go out again and a “VV” neon sign turned on at the back of the stage. The crowd became crazy at the sight of the logo. Throughout the show VV fans demonstrated they could be as loud as the heavy guitar riff coming out from the speakers. The musicians climbed the stairs to the stage to “Zener Solitaire”, an instrumental song from Neon Noir, and after a short pause Ville followed them and the decibel level from the cheers went up even more. The band opened with another song out of the artist’s debut album “Echolocate Your Heart”, an upbeat rock song with 80’s like synth sounds. Throughout the show, the setlist alternates between songs from Ville’s album and HIM classic songs. The reaction to the Finnish metal band songs like “Buried Alive By Love” or “Join Me In Death” proved (as if proof was needed) that a HIM reunion tour would be celebrated by the fans who were singing every word to these songs. “The Kiss Of Dawn” from HIM 2007 Venus Doom was a personal highlight of the show. The band left after “When Love And Death Embrace” and came back for an encore that ended after “Saturnine Saturnalia”. Some people walking out of the venue couldn’t wait to return the next day, wondering if there will be other HIM songs played.
SETLIST: (Zener Solitaire) / Echolocate Your Heart / Poison Girl / The Foreverlost / Right Here In My Arms / Run Away From The Sun / Buried Alive By Love / Loveletting / Wings Of A Butterfly / Heartful Of Ghosts / Join Me In Death / Neon Noir / The Kiss Of The Dawn / Baby Lacrimium / When Love And Death Embrace / Soul On Fire / Salute The Sanguine / The Funeral Of Hearts / Saturnine Saturnalia
VV
KAELIN MIKLA
Photos + Review by Manuel Gay | Exclusively for Music, Why Not!