Silver Myst had already played when I found myself in front of the stage. The audience had spread out, possibly for a beer or visit to the toilet. There were 2 packed lines of anxious people waiting for the next band to start. For both Finnish bands this was more or less their fist gig in the Netherlands. Both bands found themselves in a hard position to perform for a new awaiting audience. Both bands wanted to leave a good impression.

When they played “walk” there was some nice interaction from some fans screaming along. The next they played was “last drop of innocence” and the crowed seemed to recognise the song and here and there you could hear people sing/scream along. Juha (the singer) played around with his microphone and at one point even tried to put it as far as possible in his mouth.

The old songs from their 2005 released album “sound over matter” where varied with some new songs which the audience seemed to receive as well as the older songs.

Max and Aino (violist)seem to really got themselves going from time to time. But this all wasn’t enough for front man Juha and near the end he asked the crowed to build a little pit in the middle. Some people started moving a little bit and others were looking a bit sceptic did he really wanted a pit? This wasn’t clearly enough for him and asked a little more input from the crowd until there was a good looking pit. There were only a few songs left and Max got up and walked to the drums and started playing his cello standing. The crowed was still moshing around. Together with a strong song this was the way to end their performance. The audience really seemed to enjoy it all and wanted more. Although Hevein wasn’t coming back on stage Entwine was getting ready for their first gig in the Netherlands.

The stage got all dark and a white fog appeared, the crowed got ready to go and have another Finnish treat. Entwine soon entered the stage and it seemed most people came to see this band as they already got applause when they only set foot on stage. Entwine released their first full album in 1999 “The treasures within hearts” and this was their first gig in the Netherlands so fans had to wait a while and tonight they would get rewarded. Entwine was absolutely ready to go and you could see the eager on their face to play a good show.

They started off with “Out of You” and immediately you heard enthusiastic noises from the crowed, this was repeated at almost every song. Mika got quite chatty between the songs and introduced many of the songs they played. Most of the songs came from the last two albums but here and there a couple of older songs, all seemed appreciated by the cheering fans. The more older songs they played were: “Time of despair” and “Loosing the Ground” they played them both when the party had started. Mika told in between songs that “Curtained Life” is his most personal song and that he liked that the weather was good in the Netherlands because in Finland it was quite cold. They guys seemed to feel at home on stage, although they were playing without keyboard player Riitta who has left the band, their stage act was good and entertaining.

There were clearly fans that knew all the songs as I heard a lot of singing along around me. For me this was the first time to see Entwine and they really left a good impression. Maybe the enthusiastic crowd was helping as well, but it seemed that everyone had a good time.

Jaani and Tom (both guitar) swapped places and played standing together, they didn’t let Mika get all the attention. Things got pretty hot on stage, when Mika was drinking some wine he was giving some wine to Jaani, pooring it from mouth to mouth, just right before the guys were about the leave the stage. Of course that did not happened unnoticed by the crowd. Blackness captivated the stage and the crowed started screaming, clapping their hands and clearly wanted more. They weren’t letting the Finns go that easily. Luckily for the fans they came back to do an encore and Jaani, Mika and Joni(bass) entered the stage topless and the girls in the crowd went wild. A lot of screaming was going on when they played the last two songs. Mika seemed to enjoy this reaction with a pleasant, self content smile. He had all reason to smile. They played a really great gig, the audience seemed to love it so there was all reason to be proud.

Review and Photos: Elvira Visser