Setlist:
Passions Killing Floor
Wings of a Butterfly
Buried Alive by Love
Join Me
It's All Tears
Dead Lovers lane
Poison Girl
Vampire Heart
Soul On Fire
Your sweet 666
Kiss of Dawn
Wicked Game
HIM - London Borderline 17.09.07
Last night saw HIM perform an invite-only gig at London's Borderline club on Manette Street. The venue only holds 250 people so it was a pretty intimate affair. Some people had won tickets through various competitions in the rock media, and some had managed to get tickets by attending the band's signing session at HMV on Oxford Street earlier in the day. Suomirocks.com managed to blag their way in, so here's a review and some photos...
The signs on the door said "HIM On Stage 9.15 (ish)"; how Finnish. But they weren't too long after that time, with the intro tape starting and Burton wandering on the tiny stage first, followed by Linde and then Ville to a lots of cheers. I was pretty distressed to see how bad I thought Ville looked, and then even more baffled when everyone else there was saying how GOOD he looked compared with a few months ago! He looked thin and drawn to me but I'm reliably informed he looked like he was going to die relatively recently and looked great in comparison last night. He had no make up on, and his hair was up under his old man's cap, certainly not Ville looking at his best for me, but I was there for the music so he could wear a bin bag for all I care. Most importantly could they hack it live and how would the new album sound?
They were obviously there to launch the new album 'Venus Doom', so they opened with 'Passions Killing Floor'. The sound was really good right from the start out front, but Ville seemed pretty unhappy on stage at first, pulling faces.'Wings of a Butterfly' quickly followed, with Ville still struggling and mouthing "What the fuck's wrong" to the on-stage sound engineer mid song. Then came the wonderful 'Buried Alive by Love' and it became apparent it wasn't just going to be a set full of Venus Doom and I started smiling. I'll probably get lynched by the Valo disciples who can see their Lord do no wrong, but I personally think VD is the worst album of HIM's career, even just pipping Dark Light. I'm not into prog rock, and I just can't get on with VD at all I'm afraid. But I was open minded about hearing it live, as some songs come alive at a gig and suddenly make sense. I was looking forward to seeing if this was the case.
One of the things that hit you pretty quickly was that the newly sober Ville was actually singing properly. You could hear all his vocals and what he was saying between songs instead of a drunken mumbled slur, not into his microphone. I can't remember the last time I could hear what he was saying between songs properly. He wasn't forgetting the words either, he was focussed and funny. He didn't wail and shriek, and he executed the songs perfectly, showing that he can really sing live when he wants to. I have felt so let down at so many HIM gigs, mainly in the UK, with dreadful sound problems and Ville not at his best. Last night was fantastic to see. It was like having the old HIM back that I fell in love with all those years ago.
'Join Me' was next and the venue was now packed and it was getting as hot as hell, with the sweat already trickling down my back. The whole place was singing along and totally getting into the show, "This life... ain't worth living!" we all yelled. Possibly a bit out of tune, but no-one cared and the band started to look like they were relaxing and getting into it, some smiles appearing finally. The sound however was still bothering Ville in particular on stage; "Fuck" he mouthed and looked again at the poor sound man. It was fine out front though, possibly the best I've ever heard for the band.'It's all Tears' was an interesting song to threw in next, and they seemed to overcome the on stage problems.
Ville was playing with a cigarette the whole of the time, and at this point started to turn into a twitching wreck. He kept sniffing the cigarette. In theory all the UK venues, being enclosed spaces, are now smoke-free. So Ville's trade-mark smoking had to go. But he couldn't do it. It very quickly became a huge issue for him and he legged it off stage, meaning Mige had to improvise with some nice bass work. Ville returned and thanked the club management as they had given him permission to smoke. Which he proceeded to do as if it was going out of fashion, just chain smoking frantically for the rest of the set.
They played another one from VD, 'Dead Lovers Lane', with Ville conducting the band as an orchestra waving his hands around behind his head at one point to make sure they came in at the right time, Burton watching him carefully. Linde's guitar solo was great, and Ville's voice soared at the end and sent shivers down your spine. Here was one song from the album that did sound better live for me. "See what one drag of a crack butt does to you!" Ville joked, going on to say "I fought the law and the law didn't win!" as he took another drag from his much needed cigarette and another swig of Red Bull that he was also consuming at great speed, before quickly going onto cigarette number two. The jacket and scarf were removed to huge cheers and shouts for him to get the hat and other various pieces of clothing off.
'Poison Girl' was up next, with Gas pounding away at the drums impressively in front of the backdrop. The backdrop that was so huge in a tiny venue so you could literally only see the very top arch of the heartagram. Also on stage were some nice red beaded lanterns with stands that looked like women's legs in fishnet tights.
'Vampire Heart' made an appearance from Dark Light, and then things were really hotting up they launched into 'Soul on Fire', Mige was grinning a lot, and Ville turned at one point to Mige with his tongue hanging out and panting as if to say, phew this is hot. The band were tight as hell, I couldn't fault them on their playing and it sounded big and passionate which again I don't feel when I listen to the last two albums. There was their pretty usual and frustrating lack of movement on stage, but I guess you have to accept that with HIM now.
'Your sweet 666' followed, with people still jokingly yelling for his to get clothes off (and that was just the boys), and Mige and Ville then got into a disagreement over what to play next. The crowd all start shouting suggestions as they jokingly squabbled on stage. "Nothing off Venus Doom!" yelled someone near me, so it's not just me that doesn't like it
"We're contracted to play 55 minutes" announced Ville, "so we're just standing around now, there's two and half minutes to go!" He noticed someone down the front who must have been videoing or something. "I'll Turn into Lars Ulrich and sue your arse off!" he tells them with a smile. The band seemed ready to play a song now they'd decided which one, and Ville introduced it by telling everyone about his friend who took crystal meth and hung himself. He dedicated the song to his friend and they played Kiss of Dawn from the new album. It sounded pretty good with a thumping bass at the beginning.
Ville thanked everyone for being there and announced there was only one more song, to great groans. He explained that they sort the sets by the length of their penises and went on to joke about communal wanks and circle jerks! "We usually end it with this beautiful song by Chris Isaac" he tells the laughing audience "because we know what we're doing is so wrong!" and they ended a great night off with a fantastic version of 'Wicked Game'.
There was no encore of course and most people went home pretty happy saying it was one of the best HIM gigs they'd seen. I certainly was pleasantly surprised and it's one of the best I've seen for years, and I found myself singing some of the new album for hours afterwards, so maybe it's getting to me after all!
© suomirocks.com 2007
Words:Lynn Photos:Jane.