Live-Report: SONATA ARCTICA - Pariah's Child World Tour (Leipzig, 18.04.2014)

First of all I hope everyone of you had a great Easter weekend. For me it started with my first Sonata Arctica show ever. During their "Pariah's Child World Tour" the Finnish Melodic Metal heroes visited Leipzig, Germany on April 18th, 2014. When I arrived at the location ("Hellraiser") I didn't know what to expect from a Sonata Arctica show. I didn't watch any live-videos, I just wanted to be surprised this time.



Yeah and the surprise started with the support act - I never heard anything about a band called Trick Or Treat but I'll never forget these five guys from Italy. Trick or Treat is a Power Metal band in the vein of (early) Helloween and Freedom Call. That means double-bass and happy melodies you'll sing along for a very long time. The band spread a great party mood with their tunes and also the performance was pretty cool. It seemed like these guys don't take themselves too serious. Some funny moments here and there made the whole show very enjoyable. The band also dared to play Cindy Lauper's 80's classic "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" in a metal version and what can I say? I loved it. Yes, there were some people in the audience who just could laugh about it, but to me this was a pretty good example what this band is all about: fun! Great job - one of the best ("unknown") support acts I've seen so far.

At 9 pm Sonata Arctica entered the stage with their new song "The Wolves Die Young", followed by one of my all-time favorites of this band: "Losing My Insanity" from their previous record "Stones Grow Her Name". I was a huge fan of this album and its direction and I also love the new one. When it comes to older Sonata stuff "Silence" is unbeaten to me. So, to my luck the setlist focused more on the new album "Pariah's Child" and "Silence". "Cloud Factory" made the whole crowd sing along and with "Black Sheep" the speed was increased very much. I was also surpirsed when they played "What Did You Do in The War, Dad?" because they don't play this one so often.

But of course they also did some of their stuff from their high-rated albums "Ecleptica", "Reckoning Night" and "Winterheart's Guild". I think there is no Sonata show without "FullMoon" or "Don't Say A Word". Other favorites of mine at this evening were "Tallulah", "San Sebastian" and most of all "Blood". This one became quickly one of my favorites from "Pariah's Child".

I was wondering why not one single song of "Unia" and "Days Of Grays" made it into the setlist. I know those albums are hated by old Sonata fans and maybe this is the reason why they didn't play tunes like "Paid In Full" or "Flag In The Ground", but I think there are also enough fans out there who love these albums and I can imagine those people were a bit disappointed. Personally I'm also one of these guys who don't like these two albums so I didn't care so much about it.
I'd loved to hear a bit more from "Stones Grow Her Name", but together with "I Have A Right" they played at least two songs from this album. So all in all the setlist was really good.

Speaking about the band performance every fan got everything he could ask for. Tony Kakko makes live a pretty good figure and handled the crowd very well. This man has such a unique and strong voice and during the whole show he delivered a high energy performance. Same goes to guitarist Elias Viljanen. Great solos, great presence on stage, while Keyboarder Henrik „Henkka“ Klingenberg and of course drummer Tommy Portimo remained a bit in the background. A pretty funny but also kind of a creepy figure made the new bass player Pasi Kauppinen. The way he moved and how he stared at the audience was a bit scary, but funny at the same time. He reminded me at some kind of insect. What a strange guy, but he also did a great job.

What annoyed me a bit was the sound at this evening. I don't know if it was due to the venue or the fault of the sound engineer. Three or four times the sound was terrible in some high pitches. It felt like some kind of scratching, so that my ears hurt. That shouldn't happen. 
Also the playtime was a bit disappointing. After 90 minutes the show was over and I think a band that released so many albums and which is around for 15 years now could easily fill a show with at least 110 minutes. I mean when I left the location it was thirty past ten. I can't imagine leaving a venue that early in recent years. Nevertheless me and around 500 other people had much fun at this evening and Power/Melodic Metal fans shouldn't miss Sonata Arctica on their "Pariah's Child World Tour 2014"!

Setlist:

01. The Wolves Die Young
02. Losing My Insanity
03. My Land
04. Cloud Factory
05. Black Sheep
06. What Did You Do In The War, Dad?
07. FullMoon
08. Victoria's Secret
09. Tallulah
10. White Pearl, Black Oceans, ...
11. I Have A Right
12. Kingdom For A Heart
13. Wolf & Raven

Encore:
14. Blood
15. San Sebastian
16. Don't Say A Word 

http://www.sonataarctica.info