Summer is finally here! And yet, we decided to spend the evening in On The Rock‘s basement on June 14th, 2025, to witness the Norwegian SHINING special “Blackjazz” show, performing their ground-breaking 2010 record in its entirety in front of a crowd of devoted fans. There weren’t really many people inside until the audience began to gather by the time SUMEA came on stage to warm up the evening. Considering the fact that the weather was particularly great, there were festivals of various nature going on (even right in front of the venue), and other overlapping gigs, it wasn’t surprising that this didn’t sell out.
The band even started a few minutes late to give time to the fans to make their way in front of the stage. Even though for the whole concert, there was a visible gap between them, in a typical Finnish fashion. The psychedelic stoner/doom band lead by Tuomas Valtanen (who was visibly ill) seemed like a strange choice of support band for this show (thinking in a more industrial-like fashion perhaps). However, they did collect a good amount of cheers from the audience who quietly listened to their repertoire, with the band’s visuals in the background, and the occasional use of the tambourine and other more “exotic” instruments.
In the end, it worked quite nicely, and people began to approach the stage close to SHINING‘s showtime. Now with a decent-size crowd, enough to fill up all the area in front of the stage at least and some of the balcony, the show began with that few minutes lag carried on from earlier. However, eventually the Norwegians started pouring their weird avant-garde experimental fusion of jazz, prog, and extreme music onto the excited fans (especially a couple of guys in the first row). “Blackjazz” is definitely the record that brought this band’s fortune, and these songs still sound as fresh (and weird) live as the first time. With Antti Karhu as live member now for quite a few years, there is also a bit of “Finnishness” to the Norwegian band, led once again by a very energetic Munkeby, inciting the audience in close contact with them and entertaining them with his charismatic playing style. There were a few issues during the gig, like when the mic fell off the stand, and we held it up for the singer for the rest of the song, or a bit later other technical issues that prompted a small break, but nothing to impact the atmosphere and enjoyment of the fans. They felt really close to the band both before and after the show, ending with the usual “21st Century Schizoid Man,” (KING CRIMSON), and the band’s selfie with the audience in the background. It was fun to get to see these Norwegian do what they do best after a few years since their last show here in town. They also got to spend quite a while at the merch desk with the fans after the show, which is always appreciated.
As a side note, the guys are definitely one of the most video/camera savvy out there: there were video recorders on a tripod, crew filming on stage following the guys on camera, and even Munkeby himself had a camera which he occasionally took out and pointed at the audience; definitely a lot of material for Instagram and other socials!
SUMEA
SHINING
