Sonata Arctica @ Club Soda

Hello everybody, I’m Cecil and I host Burnt Offerings every Sunday as part of Metal Sundays and I’ve got a little something for you. Now, I don’t claim to be an avid concert-goer, but I’ve been to my fair share and I’m not unfamiliar with the scene so when I had the opportunity to see Powerglove, Mutiny Within and Sonata Arctica live I was pretty thrilled about it. Mutiny Within was new to me, but I was given the opportunity to meet with them and interview them, which I will get to soon enough. Powerglove, I can say, I’ve been a fan of them ever since I discovered their gimmick (for those of you who might not know, they are a band dedicated to playing metal versions of videogame theme songs). Then there was Sonata Arctica, the big guns of the night and I was thrilled to see these guys live because I’ve been a fan of them since about as far back as I can remember! Now, this is my first concert review so I’ll do my best not to get too carried away so here goes…. 

April 7^th, 2010. It was a Wednesday and I was at Club Soda. I was familiar with the venue and I arrived at about 5:00 with Terra, my photographer, to meet with Mutiny Within’s tour manager to get inside the place to meet with the band to have the interview. As for the content of the interview, you will have to wait until I get off my lazy ass and finish the editing, but follow my blog on CJLO.com under Burnt Offerings and I will let you know when to expect it. 

After the interview was over, Terra and I were given press passes for the night which, I have to admit, was pretty freakin’ sweet and made for some great shots, which will be/are available to see here. We had a little time to kill before the show so we played around with the camera to test out different angles and locations on the balconies to see where the best shots could be taken from and needless to say, we were impressed! Once you take a look at all the pictures, I’m sure you will all be as well. But, we hardly had the time to keep it up because before we knew it, Powerglove was busy setting up the stage and everybody inside was already pumped up so we got to our places and got ready for the show… 

Now, I want to let you all know that when I go to see a band perform for the first time, I’m pretty conservative. I keep my bandana on my head with my hair tied up and I may even stand around with my arms crossed until I get a feel for the band performing. In this case, since Terra and I had press passes, I was sitting comfortably at the balcony up top. But, I’ve seen Sonata before and I was familiar with the other two bands, even though I hadn’t seen them live yet at this point, so I was about ready to rock out anyways. 

Powerglove had the stage set up colourfully with their props, such as a vicious Piranha Plant, a man with a purple hat and a yellow “P” that I can’t identify for the life of me, and a massive POWERGLOVE banner. Having never seen these guys live before, I was already sold on their gimmick. I’ve been listening to them for a while but I never wanted to go see them because, honestly, I was sceptical about how much stage presence they could have until I saw them get on the stage. I had never seen one person wear so many Koopa shells in my entire life! The drummer was wearing a costume that looked like something out of Mortal Kombat with banners coming from his back! Needless to say, I was sold on their live shows and when they started up with their first song, the Tetris theme song, I fell over in my seat with a feeling of satisfaction. About half way through the set they threw to the crowd several inflatable swords and encouraged people to challenge others to Mortal Kombat which started, to my knowledge, the first ever mosh pit with swords. I can’t deny it, I’m a big videogame nerd and when I heard them play songs from some my favourite videogames such as Storm Eagle (Mega Man X) and Red Wings Over Baron (Final Fantasy IV) I confess, I got swept away. Buuut… it’s kind of hard to sing along to your favourite songs when they don’t have any words, so Powerglove made it interactive with a hand-puppet toucan they brought out during Storm Eagle and they encouraged us to chant “FUCK THAT BIRD!” every time they would put him up. A bit later into the set they delighted us with tracks from their upcoming album which I won’t share with you just yet, so you’ll have to keep your eyes open for it when it comes out! When all was said and done, they ended their set with the Power Rangers theme song and encouraged us all to chant “GO GO POWER RANGERS!” and at the end of it, they thanked us and left. 

Sometime after the show, I met with Chris from Powerglove and introduced myself as Cecil and he laughed heartily and said “Cecil, eh? I’m Kain!” which is a reference to FFIV for those of you unfamiliar. We had a little standoff there, but we laughed, greeted each other and shared geek love for, well, specifically Mega Man X. Chris, or any of you guys from Powerglove (Alex, Nick, Bassil), if you are reading this, great show, thanks for being so cool about meeting Terra and me after the show, and…. Storm Eagle was the easiest boss, right after Chill Penguin! 

Now, let us move along to the second band, Mutiny Within. As I said before, I got the chance to meet these guys and speak with them before the show. Well, I only got to speak with bassist AJ and singer Chris really, but they were fun to talk to and they didn’t snub us at all after the show. Without going into too much detail, they can honestly say that their best Canadian touring experience has been Montreal, with Quebec City as a close second. By the time these guys had made it to the stage, I knew what they were all about and I was well-prepared to receive them so when they came to the stage, I had my bandana off, my hair down and a firm grip on the banister in front of me. I was so pumped up at this point that I couldn’t tell if they were playing "Awake" first or "Forsaken", or if they had just finished the set with "Year of Affliction" because I got so carried away with their music and the energy these guys had put into their music that their entire set was spent with me rocking out to my hardest! I was headbanging, windmilling and just allowing my body to be a slave to the music. At one point I remember Chris and I made eye contact during his set and he smiled at me, threw me up the horns and said to the audience, “This guy’s gonna fucking break something!” and for a brief moment, I was elated. I couldn’t be happier. I was enjoying a great show, with a great performance from a fairly new band that worked hard to be where they are today, and they gave me props halfway through their set. I have to admit, when I see a band that really enjoys what they do, that shows in their performance, I enjoy myself. I knew these guys wanted to be there and I knew that they loved the feeling they got performing in front of all these people so, you know what guys? A+ keep up the good work. 

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to speak with the guys after the show as they were too busy being bombarded by fanboys and fangirls who couldn’t draw the line between being enthusiastic and creepy. However, if you guys are reading this, come back to Montreal and enjoy a beer with yours truly. 

The final act was Sonata Arctica and let me start this off with a little more geekery; Sonata Arctica had the wolf shirts first and it was these guys that gave these shirts their power. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Google it. So anyways, as I said before I’ve known these guys and enjoyed them for a long time and I’ve seen them before. I went a while back with a few friends of mine when they played at the Metropolis which, to be honest, was a poor concert experience in comparison but that was the first time I saw Sonata and I knew what they were all about. Tony Kakko, the singer, is… well… for a lack of a better word, he’s cute. He moves around a LOT! I’m not saying that other singers from other bands don’t, but he reminds me of someone with ADHD. He jumps around, he air guitars frequently, he’ll go for casual walks across the stage and between songs or during solos he has a habit of sitting down on the stage cross-legged. Needless to say, I was in a happy place and Sonata delivered the performance I was needed for a while now. They played several newer tracks from Unia, such as "Paid in Full", and their latest album which I haven’t even listened to yet, still to this day, but I was happy when Tony would stop and think to himself and call out for older songs, such as "Broken" or "FullMoon". I always enjoy hearing new music, especially from a band I’ve already been a fan of for a long while but honestly, when I see a show and the focus is set to the new material I get bored quickly; I didn’t come JUST to find out what will be coming soon. What I enjoyed most about the Sonata experience was their balance between new and old songs tied with their unyielding stage presence. All in all, their performance was spectacular and I had another moment where Tony saw me in the balcony and threw me up the horns. Terra, my photographer, died a little bit that night when she was taking pictures because she got up front to get a few shots and Tony posed for her, the picture will be available to see soon enough. 

Anyways, long story short, this was probably one of the best concert experiences I’ve had, if only because I never had the opportunity to take advantage of so many privileges before and it made for great memories. BUT! I want to say that the three bands performed superbly, the lighting was great and I had no problem waiting outside to meet with Powerglove and Mutiny when all was said and done. Thank the Gods it wasn’t snowing!