I wish I had seen the 69 Eyes when I was 20!

Going to this concert was like going back in time, feeling 20 again, when I was a goth with studded bracelets, chokers, long black skirts and black eyeliner, nervously hiding the chippy black nail polish on my fingernails, staying up late to lisen to the music in the dark. Dreaming to see the Northern Lights. And my favourite Finnish bands playing live. While most of them I’ve seen at least once, The 69 Eyes were a first for me. I had no clue what to expect from this concert. So here it goes.

I went to the venue without really thinking much about it. I was expecting to be greeted by a crowd of goth girls, ready to scream and faint at the sight of the dark-haired Finns. I was greeted by a crowd that was at least 15-20 years older than my expectations. While the set-up of the event was a minus, what happened after the show begun was an unexpected surprise. They started playing with no delay, being greeted by a somewhat passive crowd that needed to get drawn into the action. And boy, how we were drawn into it! Jyrki 69’s presence on stage is hypnotic, his charisma and stage persona make it impossible to take your eyes off him. He practically hooked us all and took us down memory lane while the band were playing some of their best known tracks, going al the way back to their melancholic goth days and returning to their more recent goth’n’roll sounds. One after the other, the old and new music was warming up the crowd. But nobody was more pumped in that venue than the drummer. Jussi 69 is phenomenal! His drumming, his energy, the way he was standing up and scrutinising the crowd, everything was a treat from his side. And the guys playing their guitars… I can’t put it in words how magical the intro to Wasting the Dawn sounds live, or how well and in tune with each other they all are.

My favourite song from them was the 3rd in the setlist (Betty Blue), but surprisingly, it was Dance D’Amour that made my heart skip a beat and Gotta Rock that made me dance. Around me, the crowd gave the warmest greeting to Gothic Girl and The Chair. There was singing and dancing, cheers for new songs and applause for the golden hits. There were people knowing the lyrics to their new music that acted unimpressed by Feel Berlin. And people who knew every lyric and danced and sung to every tune. And this only made me think that The 69 Eyes seem timeless. That they are and always will still be here, a genuine band, writing music, playing it live, enchanting with both new and old music. And I wonder again why it took me so long to see them live.

And if you managed to read this far, I have to make a disclaimer and say that most of this post, and the pleasure of having seen them live, are enveloped by melancholia, the cold and dark type that they so wonderfully blend in their music. And by a lot of memories of moments when I heard one of their songs for the first time, when I saw their videos on TV late at night on VH1’s Friday Rocks, of places I’ve been or moments I lived while listening to their songs on my mp3 player, my iPod or my Spotify. A walk through time with music. There are a few bands that stuck with me along the way, they are one of them. Kiitos!