After seeing GNOD last year at Roadburn, it was definitely a no-brainer to mark the date of their show at Kuudes Linja on the calendar, quite a few years since their last visit to Finland. Being a Tuesday night, the venue was not exactly full, but there were enough people to get things going when HARRGA got started, performing solo with Dali de Saint Paul as the other member, Miguel Prado, was absent.
Their experimental industrial music is focused on the theme of immigrants and asylum seekers and the treatment received when they flee in Europe, as the artist herself explained at the end of the show, since all the lyrics were in French. Wondering how the performance would have worked in the original form of the band, i.e. as a duo, the show was still quite intense, with Dali displaying a good dose of raw energy, especially when leaving the console – which was set up on the floor right in front of the stage – to walk around near the audience and shout in their face.
A short while after, GNOD was ready to get on stage and, as the light dimmed to immerse the crowd – which had now grown to a decent size – in their their near hypnotic rhythm. The set was pretty solid, with songs such as “Town,” “Spotlight” (from the latest “Hexen Valley”), “Learn to Forgive,” “Iceman,” and “Paper Error.”
GNOD is one of those bands that captures you from start to finish and throws you into a musical journey the kind of which you don’t often get to see, with their psychedelic noise rock made of distortions, heavy as hell bass, and that gritty, raw punkish attitude, making them a formless creature that can fascinate you from the get-go, which makes it all the more worthwhile to see them live. The beauty about this band is that they have kept experimenting and pushing their boundaries, jamming with a different bunch of musicians over the years, with excellent results, given their musical offering.
In the end, while being easily carried away by the music and the perfect atmosphere inside of Kuudes Linja, their 1-hour set flew by way too quickly. Being still quite early in the evening, many fans stayed to greet the artists at the merch desk – left mostly vacant throughout the evening up until the end of the show. This show was definitely one of the highlights of this spring and for those who are not familiar with the band, we invite them to catch them live on the next occasion.
HARRGA
GNOD
