A night of extremely distinctive shows, offering black metal to dark industrial and some of the rarer side of instruments like electric violin, theremin, and a voice-modulating gas mask mic. PSYCLON NINE made their first visit to Finland at Kuudes Linja, Helsinki on May 15th, 2024.
The warming-up stage was handled by local assembly POST PULSE and DIE KUR from Great Britain. I’ve got to admit that POST PULSE took me by surprise. It’s nice to see some of the more unknown bands giving out such great stage charisma. Too bad many decided to come only later, so the venue was barely half full during their show. But it also worked to their advantage as they were filming a music video for a few of their songs and the lack of audience allowed their videographers to move around freely. I’m sure I’ll be seeing them again someday. One thing I’ve got to admit as a disappointment goes to the extremely long dreads-wearing bass player. As a photographer, those dreads are like a dream for cool shots, but it requires you to move them around and come closer to the edge of the stage. Do that and you’ll be a photographer’s magnet in your future shows!
The next show brought some of the more interesting types of industrial sounds of the night. Adding a member to play the electric violin is something I haven’t witnessed before in this genre and, based on the violinist’s stage performance, I’d guess his background is in classical music. Or maybe I’ve just seen too much of Lindsey Stirling dancing around the stage in her shows. Another interesting element of DIE KUR‘s show was the theremin. I’ve played around with one myself, but I’ve never seen it used on stage and this was the last genre I’d imagine seeing one in. Overall, it was a solid show and it was nice to have something very different from both warm-up acts.
The headliner of the night was PSYCLON NINE (USA), who were finally visiting Finland for the first time. From what I had heard about their shows in the recent past, my expectations weren’t very high, but the show ended up being definitely in my top 3 of the year so far. This show perfectly defined what I expected to see at a goth club when I first visited one over a decade ago, and so far before this night, I hadn’t really met those expectations. Nero Bellum‘s (vocals) stage act was magnetizing and extremely energetic.
Post Pulse
Die Kur
Psycolon Nine
Photos by Richard Forsman
