A few days after the Candlemass gig that I witnessed, in the middle of the week, I went to Debaser Strand at Hornstull, a venue which hosted so many bands before, a classic Stockholm venue, by the waterway in Södermalm. I missed the first song from the first support band, Spiral Skies, but the band paid out the whole time that they played! Their vintage and warm sound, the beautiful female vocals and the overall energy of the quintet warmed up the audience as more people were slowly coming. They play a lovely groovy and inspired ‘70s heavy rock with psychedelic influences and charming melodies. The band is compiled by a female vocalist (Frida) with a distinctive warm voice, and four guys, who appear on stage wearing theatrical masks, adding to the theatricality and the occult side of their music, a very smart and effective way to present a beautiful imagery during their live shows. This is definitely a band that I will check more and try to listen to their tunes.
The next band, which has supported Orange Goblin during their Scandinavian Tour in November, is another Swedish band, which I did not have the chance to see live before – Bürner. The perfect support act to Orange Goblin! They play rock n’ roll and their sound is 100% influenced by Motörhead, all the way! They are very energetic and uplifting and make the audience headbanging hard. Their approach is straight forward and direct, with a lot of communication with the audience – they also teased the Stockholm audience about Gothenburg (I don’t know, maybe they come from the West Coast?!) and that added to the overall party mood of their playing time. Bürner is a power trio that is worth checking out.
The main act, of course, Orange Goblin from the UK, was touring the Scandinavian countries, and weirdly enough, for different reasons I had not seen them live before, so here was my chance! They performed really well during the whole night, having a new bassist (Martin is no longer in the band) and playing with so much energy and passion. Ben Ward, the front man, kicked off the gig by paying tribute to the mighty and sadly gone L-G from Entombed, which was quite an emotional moment (Ward also wore an Entombed, Clandestine-era T-shirt). Anyway, the band played for 75 minutes approximately, with a best-of set from their 25-year career, covering all the tastes of their fans (they also played from the “Coup De Grace” album, one of my personal favorites). In a few songs we had some small mosh pits in the front rows, which was awesome (not for the ones who were close to the pit though!). Overall, it was a very good show from the Britons and I really look forward to seeing them again.
Antonis Mantzavinos
