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Reports 2009 Royal Max 2, Forge - Lappeenranta, Toteemi 30-01-2009 (FI)
Reports 2009 Royal Max 2, Forge - Lappeenranta, Toteemi 30-01-2009 (FI)
Royal Max 2, Forge - Lappeenranta, Toteemi 30-01-2009 (FI)
Saturday, 22 January 2011 02:03 | 
It was a cold night in Lappeenranta. To be honest, it was freezing, but those 20 degrees below zero were way too few to affect the good spirit. It was also a night of major absences, as Forge’s second guitarist Jyri Kangastalo and Royal Max 2’s present singer weren’t capable to make it to the spot, but as we all know, somehow, the show must go on. We warmed up the atmosphere with a sip of Greek ouzo (well, okay, a couple of sips) and headed straight to the heart of rock and roll!
This gig felt mostly like a gathering of friends in a bar somewhere in the centre of the small city. The feeling was great and the people warmer than ever. Its times like these you can tell the difference between the citizens of the big city and the simple, everyday people in the rest of the country, but that’s another story…
A little after midnight and the first band were ready to rock the place! Forge is already considered to be an ‘old’ band from Lappeenranta, without many official studio releases, but with an amazing guitar player who also handles the vocals. Tough job for a musician to sing and play at the same time, but as far as Toni "Tone" Pulkkinen is concerned, his musical talent is so natural and well-developed that everything seems possible when he is on stage. Some tiny problems in the sound settings didn’t let us enjoy his playing totally but the band as a whole (even without the absent guitarist) left us with the best impressions. If you see Forge name anywhere, go watch without any second thought.
A short break followed Forge’s performance and soon the legendary Royal Max 2 took over Toteemi’s stage. Among the highlights of the night was undoubtedly Stam1na’s Antti ‘Hyrde’ Hyyrynen’s appearance as the band’s singer. Actually, for those who are not familiar with the short (but quite complicated) band history, Hyrde has been the studio singer in Royal Max 2’s first Mini CD release, which also happens to include songs with exclusively English lyrics. So, for the many among the crowd, it was a whole new experience to watch Antti Hyyrynen singing in English. And of course he did a great job! The sounding result was outstanding comparing to their early recordings that are available on the internet. And it’s quite obvious that Hyrde has become more mature and confident on stage after years of rehearsing and touring.
Nice and relaxed stage performance by all of the guys and party mood that led us to dancing and singing all night long. The band started their set list with ‘Static Electricity’ and continued with lots of their old songs, some covers like Extreme’s "Get the funk out" plus some new tunes. During one of the last songs Ville Hyyrynen offered his vocal talent to sing side by side with his little brother one of the new songs. What a night!
Unfortunately, rumour has it that Antti will concentrate only on Stam1na’s activities from now on and Royal Max 2 will be working on new songs with their new singer. But even then, who knows what the future holds…?
Athina Verou - 01.02.2009