Concert Review The jokes were clumsy and the men squeezed an expensive plastic cup in front of the mixer in their hands as The War On Drugs started the Finnish arena spring handsomely.

Culture|Concert review

Rock

The War On Drugs at the Helsinki Ice Rink on March 23, 2022.

Now you can banging with clichés: there was indeed a great sense of celebration in the air when the first bigger arena gig was on hand since the restrictions were lifted.

The smartphones were blinking again about selfies and soon-to-be-forgotten gig videos, the men prone to pleasure were once again gathered in front of the mixing table to squeeze an expensive plastic cup into their hands – which is probably the right way to listen to The War On Drugs’ luxury nights but moderate fluffy rock.

Exceptionally good-natured and faithfully dressed in a plaid shirt and jeans Adam Granduciel He and his band started their European tour in Helsinki. He broke the ice of the arena gig right from the start, deliberately courting with clumsy spikes from hockey.

Ten years ago would not have thought that someday it would still be at this point. The War On Drugs gig at Flow 2012 was blind. Granduciel left his song like Topi Sorsakoski as such, but with the difference that in Sorsakoski it worked.

Then the 2012 band has made the final metamorphosis of Granduciel’s solo project one of the best rock bands of our time, both on record and live. Slave Ambientin (2012) Springsteen-mental Baby Missiles was a foretaste of the future. Lost in the Dream (2014) took the band towards kraut-influenced North American heart rock. The record hit Red Eyes was a breakthrough for the band on bigger stages, and that full tent came to the song at the 2015 Flow, which was already better as a gig, but it didn’t hit until the finish line either.

The lineup increased, and A Deeper Understanding (2017) locked the band’s current default settings. At the 2017 Globe Annexet in Stockholm, the band’s performance was sheer euphoria, with tears still coming to mind. With these settings, War On Drugs will continue to crumble in March 2022, the most recent I Don’t Live Here Anymore with the album, when the band played their best Finnish gig.

Seven people the lineup did a guaranteed job of producing a rich sound mass and texture where Jon Natchezin the baritone saxophone plays an important role as the adhesive surface between the electric guitar and the contacts. Natchez’s role was to blow mostly long voices, however Eyes to the Windin at the time he got to shine with his solo.

Silently, the band has become the best live song Under the Pressurewhich begins with an improvised intro for a couple of minutes, after which it is inflated into a rock cake of escaping tension.

Some beauty flaw fit. At the beginning of the set, Granduciel’s solo guitar was mixed way too low. Almost all of the band’s post-2012 songs have a clear climax, and Wrestling it’s Granduciel’s long guitar solo, this time drowned out under the rest of the instrumentation, especially the keyboards.

Therefore, the songs on the new album stood out more favorably Living Proof, where the audition was not so full and the solo guitar stood out better. The title track of the new album I Don’t Live Here Anymore it also spread just as full and large as one could have imagined in advance.

The band live is growing in popularity today with its growing popularity and expanding production. The set is based on four highlights in particular: Red Eyes, An Ocean Between the Waves, Under the Pressure and Thinking of a Place. The last of these was in the wrong place for the drama arc towards the end of the set, and the performance also had an enthusiastic, forced taste for playing. The song could have been pruned off and the gig would not have suffered at all.

The role of The War On Drugs in rock music is not to provide danger, but to provide a warm comfort blanket. It was that band that broadcast to their audiences on Tuesday night. Released in 2020 Live Drugs The live album has been compiled from various gigs from 2014–2019, and the live versions heard in Helsinki were more or less one with the album.

The band has found its comfort zone and accomplished its mission, but still some element of surprise in the form of a remake of a cover song or an old song, for example, would do a good job for the band’s set. Granduciel has done it occasionally, but now with the release of a new album Come to the City was the only glimpse into the band’s older production at the Helsinki gig.