WEEDEATER are a stoner/sludge legend celebrating their 25th year of rumbling around the globe. As they were set to make a visit to Helsinki during their European tour on Friday June 17th, 2023, we were keen to see their current live act. The night was further filled out with interesting supporting acts from Finland: newcomers SWARM as the starter and veteran act KAISER as the second up. The venue at Kuudes Linja is a nice and smallish club environment that one could expect to suit the bands well and create an intense atmosphere.
The night took off with SWARM starting, as the audience was slowly pouring in. The band calls their music heavygaze and their show definitely had more ethereal tones to it than the later two artists. They took to stage confidently and quickly gathered the arriving audience around them. The focus was mainly on vocalist Hilja Vedenpää, but the band is not all about her stage presence. All the band members are experienced musicians with backgrounds in bands like MUSTA RISTI, ENTWINE, and BEFORE THE DAWN, and this translates to tightly-knit playing and elegant compositions.
Next on stage was KAISER, who turned on the heat. The band’s heart is in the guitar work and vocals of Olli Suurmunne, who also led the band on stage, inciting the crowd that had by now filled up the Kuudes Linja premises. The 3-man band plays a straightforward and aggressive style with fuzzes blazing and drums blasting. The live energy worked well to get the crowd ready for the night’s main act.
However, when it was time for WEEDEATER to take the stage, there appeared to be a problem with the amp that bassist/vocalist Dave “Dixie” Collins was using. The power went off and on and after a while there was a puff of smoke as the amp yielded. So there was some hurried action on the stage as the bass amp from KAISER‘s setup was brough back on. The show started a good 30 minutes later than announced and some of the good energy from the earlier performers was lost. Collins didn’t appear too happy with his bass sound either.
When WEEDEATER finally got to playing though, they didn’t seem to be hindered whatsoever by the starting troubles. All of the equipment were drawn closer to the audience, bringing Ramzi Ateyeh‘s drums in line with Collins and guitarist Dave Shepherd. Together with the tightly packed audience, this created a very intense atmosphere and a sweaty feeling of closeness. There was a whiskey bottle and a cigarette passed around on the stage, Collins performed with his trademark smirks, and the volume was turned up to eleven. The bottom line, though, was that this is a very solid act that have a routine with decades of practice behind it. Now there might be a touch of doing-the-same-thing-over-again here, but that’s pretty much what the crowd wants when they come to see a band like WEEDEATER. And when the music just delivers, what’s not to like about it?
Swarm
Kaiser
Weedeater
