Author: Urban Bolta
Venue: Gospodarsko razstavišče, Ljubljana
Concert date: 29.03.2009
Attendance: 1800
Ticket price: €27 / €32 on the day of the show
A few months back, the Slovenian metal crowd got word that one of the biggest European metal bands of recent years – Sweden’s In Flames – was coming on March 27. The promoter first booked the show for Štuk in Maribor, then moved it to central Slovenia, specifically to Ljubljana’s Gospodarsko razstavišče. Counting the Cvetličarna show three years ago (on the tour with Sepultura, in case you forgot) and last year’s headlining slot at Metalcamp, this was already the third chance lately to catch the Swedes on our soil.
SUPERBUTT
After plenty of guessing about who would show up as the support act, if anyone at all, since the promoter gave out zero official info, we got to meet a Hungarian metal crew with the curious name Superbutt. A drummer in an AC/DC shirt, a guitarist in a Pantera shirt, and a bassist who looked and moved almost exactly like Tim Commerford from Rage Aginst the Machine – they promised a live mix of all kinds of genres. Over a 45-minute set they ran through their material so far and plugged a new album, which the vocalist namedropped a few times between songs. Hard guitar riffs from two guitars and angry vocals kept trading places, though the vocals never turned into a full-on growl, and there were quieter parts where the guitars dropped out and the rhythm section stepped up with some seriously pronounced bass lines. Think a blend of industrial death metal, heavy metal and at moments even hardcore, with the tempo constantly shifting. The vocals changed a lot too – the mighty bear of a frontman showed off quite a few shades of his voice, from clean singing all the way to raspy screaming. Judging by the reaction they did a solid job, since you could already spot a fair few >>headbangers<< going at it, and in the end Superbutt walked away with a round of applause.
IN FLAMES
After a good half-hour break, In Flames finally marched onstage, and the outdoor area where the smokers had taken shelter emptied out in an instant. Niklas Engelin stepped in as lead guitarist, since Jesper Strömblad – the former lead guitarist and the only member who’s been around since the band’s founding – is still in treatment for alcoholism. That was also why the show had lost a bit of its magic before it even started. Stand-in Engelin was a full-time member of the band for a while some ten years ago, but never recorded an album with them and only played a handful of shows.
The A Sense of Purpose tour has been going for quite a while now. It’s been a year since the album of the same name came out, and in that time the Swedes have covered almost every continent – this is already their third time roaming around Europe on this tour.
In Flames is a band I can’t possibly imagine surprising anyone with the setlist. In the early 2000s they wrote a handful of songs that became the backbone of their shows and will most likely stay that way for as long as the band exists. For years now I haven’t noticed them playing anything from their early days other than Behind Space. For the first two records that’s still somewhat understandable, since apart from the aforementioned Strömblad there’s nobody left from that era, but they could shamelessly play some Jester Race classic – back then the current vocalist Fridén and guitarist Gelotte were already on board (Gelotte was earning his keep behind the drums at the time). Of course, tonight’s Ljubljana show was no different. That backbone of songs like Trigger, The Queit Place and the closing My Sweet Shadow was joined by five new songs, as befits a tour supporting a new album, and the rest of the setlist also leaned mostly on the last decade. A lot of ink has been spilled over this – the two eras of the In Flames story, that is – and plenty has been said. Many old fans turned their backs on the band, since around the turn of the millennium they veered off their previous course and turned into a machine for making music to the people’s taste, the kind that brings them fame and money. Because of that they became Sweden’s number one metal export and one of the most sought-after bands on the cosmopolitan metal scene, and at the same time pretty much public enemy number one for some of the true believers.
In the huge space and the not exactly gig-friendly ambience of Gospodarsko razstavišče, some people were expecting a real spectacle, but they got precious little. Let me start with the venue itself. >>Gospodarc<< is too big a space for a band like In Flames in Slovenia, which is hardly a concert oasis, and that was painfully obvious on the spot, since apart from the front few meters you could stroll around the hall without the slightest trouble. But then again, the Slovenian capital has no alternative mid-sized venue anyway, so I believe the promoter didn’t have much of a choice. The sound could probably have been handled a lot better too – it was truly a disaster, and the biggest fans got shortchanged the most, since supposedly it sounded worst right below the stage. Muddy guitars and quiet, totally unintelligible vocals belong on a second-rate stage, not at a show like this. The crew or the venue, who’s to blame? Who knows, but the right answer is probably a mix of both. What’s for sure is that the band itself isn’t to blame for the bad sound, since they delivered a perfectly solid set. No In Flames show is complete without the guitarists and the vocalist constantly swapping positions and a joke or two from Anders Fridén. This time, totally in his style, he picked on someone in the front row, accusing them of throwing a pair of men’s underwear onstage. If the band deserves any blame, it’s for the short set – for a not exactly cheap ticket people expected more than an hour and twenty-five minutes of sawing away, and there was no encore, not even a whisper of one. No special effects to speak of either, except maybe the nonstop blinding of the crowd by spotlights from the top of the stage, which by the end of the set was real torture for the eyes. All in all, the show was no great feast, but we’re talking about a band that tours a lot, so you’ll surely get another chance to see them live. Let me finish with the fact that I still heard from some people that they had a great time and that it was truly >>bombastic<
Photos: Barbara Milharčič
Setlist
1. Pinball Map 2. Leeches 3. Delight And Angers 4. Episode 666 5. Drifter 6. Colony 7. The Hive 8. Cloud Connected 9. Alias 10. Move Through Me 11. Only For The Weak 12. Disconnected 13. Come Clarity 14. The Quiet Place 15. The Mirror’s Truth 16. Trigger 17. Take This Life 18. My Sweet Shadow
Photo Gallery
