VILLE VALO: On Stage

Automatic translation. Improvements are constantly being worked on.

Ville Valo, Kælan Mikla
Zurich, Komplex 457
22.02.2023

VV aka Ville Valo is back with his solo album “Neon Noir” after HIM played their farewell tour five years ago. Directly to the album release started his EU and US tour with planned 60 concerts. In Europe, many of them were already sold out in advance. We have ended up in Zurich’s Komplex 457. The hall holds almost 2400 people and is very well filled.

The Icelandic Post-Punk trio Kælan Mikla will be there as support. They celebrated their tenth band anniversary just a few days ago and now entered the stage at 20:00. Within 30 minutes they presented an overview of their career including “Kalt”, “Hvítir Sandar” and “Sólstöður”. Unfortunately, they have to perform on a small proscenium, as most of the stage is taken up by VV ‘s equipment and shrouded in black. We were very touched by the music of the Icelandic women and so they were the perfect start of the evening.

At 21:00 the secret behind the black curtain was revealed. The stage was bathed in fog and rather modest purple light. Behind the drums, when the intro sounded, the letter combination VV first appeared, which then completed itself into a new Heartagram logo. There was great anticipation in the audience and an exuberant party atmosphere from the very beginning. One by one Mikko Virta (guitar), Risto Rikala (drums), Sampo Sundström (guitar) Juho Vehmanen (bass) and to great applause Ville Valo entered the stage. You could see in his face how much he was looking forward to the comeback. The setlist alternated between new songs and old HIM classics. The perfect mix for a wonderful evening. After a good hour the Finns left the stage to enter the stage again for four more songs under big applause.

Text & Photos: Annie Bertram

Setlist:
„Echolate Your Love“ • „The Funeral of Hearts“ • „Neon Noir“ • „Right Here in My Arms“ • „Loveletting“ • „Buried Alive by Love“ • „In Trenodia“ • „Wings of a Butterfly“ • „Heartful of Ghosts“ • „Join Me in Death“ • „The Foreverlost“ • „The Kiss of Dawn“ • „Run Away from the Sun“ • „When Love and Death Embrace“ ••• „Soul on Fire“ • „Salute the Sanguine“ • „Poison Girl“ • „Saturnine Saturnalia“

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