On Sunday, October 29th, Amorphis took over TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht. They brought two bands to warm up the crowd: the Finnish Lost Society and Icelandic Sólstafir.
Lost Society was up first, and despite being a bit of a newer band next to the other two on the line-up, quite a few people showed up early to catch their set. Some people even came to the show just for them. Before their set started, ‘Firestarter’ by The Prodigy blasted through the speakers. After that, a robotic female voice spoke: “Incoming transmission from Lost Society”, and the band took the stage. The crowd seemed to like them and banged their heads to the music. The singer, Samy Elbanna, was great with the crowd interactions, encouraging them to go crazier, jump and sing along. The band played a sold-out show at the Little Devil in Tilburg earlier this year, and here they showed they are ready for the big stages.
Next was Sólstafir. Through the speakers you could hear ‘Þegar Vetrar Þokan Grá’ and ‘Eldhúsdagsræða Odds sterka — Fimmta ríma af Oddi sterka’ by Icelandic musicians Steindór Andersen and Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson. The crowd had doubled in size and were ready to see what this band would bring to the stage. They were in their own world for most of the set, playing song after song without much talking in between. As we were nearing the end of their set, they introduced themselves. For their last song, ‘Goddess Of The Ages’, the singer, Aðalbjörn (Addi) Tryggvason, dedicated it to all the ladies in the building. The crowd also got an assignment for this song. when Addi yelled “1, 2, 3, 4” we had to scream. During the last song, Addi went through the crowd, up the stairs and took a walk around the balcony of the venue. Moving his way through the people while still singing.
After two amazing bands it was time for Amorphis to rock the stage. The 6-piece band from Finland started back in 1990. The mostly middle-aged crowd was excited to see them and were ready to give all their energy. The band all looked great wearing cool leather outfits. The energy was through the roof and the heads were banging all around. At the back of the stage they had big screens, showing several decorative videos like flying birds. It added to the feel of the show and made for a nice background. The lights were all over the place, from very bright white lights to flashing red and blue. The setlist was a nice range of older and newer songs; songs ranging from 1994 album Tales From The Thousand Lakes to their latest album Halo released in 2022. The band rocked through their set and I’m sure a lot of fans would like to see them come back sooner than later!
