A little more than two years after her first headlining show in Helsinki, the French synthwave artist SIERRA – now known as SIERRA VEINS – returned in the Finnish capital with a new record (“In The Name of Blood”), a new outlook on her sound, and as we said, a new name. According to the musician herself, a choice reflecting her artistic and personal direction in her career and its evolution. Supporting the main act this Saturday night at On The Rocks was local coldwave/synthpunk act SUZI SABOTAGE. While not sold out, there was still a sizable crowd in the venue when the latter came on stage to showcase her material in her fairly short set. Clearly she has gained a good following among the people in the scene, and delivered an intriguing performance with songs such as “Persona Non Grata,” “Love at First Bite,” and “Nazi Goths, Fuck Off!,” alternating herself between synths, vocals, and electric kantele, which gives her music that extra touch of Finnish authenticity, making use of the whole stage during the show. While short, the gig gained her the compliments of many people present tonight, so all in all, it went pretty well.
As the fans lumped together closer to the stage, after a long break, they welcomed Annelise Morel a.k.a. SIERRA VEINS onto the stage, while the show began with the titletrack from her latest album. Accompanied much like the previous band by the visuals on screen, the show was slightly different than usual, if anything due to the missing stage lights setup that usually has been part of her shows, but also because the Parisian artist took a different approach by occasionally jumping off her platform to sing closer to the audience, something made possible partly by the nature of her new material.
Other than that, it was again filled with an alternation of emotional and intense beats, and a danceable soundscape that soon got a large part of the crowd to feel the beat and move their body throughout the show. A mix of synthwave, EBM, darkwave, and various influences raging from industrial to metal music into her own personal sound, SIERRA VEINS really appears to have been evolving with her, consolidating her position on the international stage, and tonight the audience got good proof of that.
With no time to rest during the set, the night flew by quite fast, when eventually we got to the final encore with “My Poison,” closing tonight’s show before the traditional late-night DJ set. Once again, SIERRA VEINS showed her talent to an excited audience, and she seems to really have come into her own from that first time in Finland in support of CARPENTER BRUT a few years back. Since then, we have seen her conquer successfully the Hall of Fame stage at Roadburn, and climb higher into what nowadays is no longer an emerging artists, but a consolidated reality. Waiting to see where her inspiration will take her music next. Check our photo gallery here…
SUZI SABOTAGE
SIERRA VEINS
