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Vanity Beach - Tavastia, Helsinki - June 10th 2010 Support: Circle of Contempt
They will rock your world so you will never be the same. They will infect you with wicked thoughts and take you down while you are up, with the vicious vibes of lust and glacial beauty coming from them and their music filled with decadence romance, original synthetic sound and seductive fragrance of vice. Depraved and lured, you will beg for more but they will leave you thirsty with your desires, ‘cause they are Vanity Beach!
Vanity Beach are a Helsinki band that is so much NOT Finnish in their music style and looks. Perhaps, this can be explained by the Swedish roots of some band members or maybe by their shadow-less contempt towards the highly promoted “death metal from Finland”. Their music combines different genres so you can’t label them with anything clean-cut: it sounds like aggressive industrial (agro – industrial), synth-rock, gothic rock, electronic, a bit like Dope Stars Inc, Nine Inch Nails or Jesus on Extasy though still not quite…What you can say for sure is that the band is truly interesting, innovative and possess a great potential. You will be astonished by the big names supporting Vanity Beach: Marilyn Manson (VB was chosen by him to open up his show in Hartwall Areena in Helsinki), HIM (Ville Valo invited VB for his New Years Helldone festival in famed Tavastia), The Birthday Massacre (Chibi guests on their song ‘the Knight Murders’) and Jonny Lee Michaels (producer of The 69 Eyes worked at recording VB’s latest album).
Vanity Beach are Jonas Karsten (front-man, songwriter, the band’s driving power and a striking personality ), Lars Pontus Nybergh (guitar master), Jesse Valo (very good bass, professional boxer and Ville Valo’s younger brother), Sophie Sarisalmi (synths and fabulous Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly type of a girl) and Miika Tikka (drums master). The line-up has changed a lot since 2002 but this was a good thing as they managed to develop as a band and finally recorded their third album. To celebrate the release of this highly anticipated album ‘A Life of Vice,’ Vanity Beach threw a party-gig at Tavastia on June, 10.
Framed by DJ-sets and opened up by progressive metal band Circle of Contempt, this gig was like a flight on a space rocket that is supplied with several reaction turbine stages to bear down the earth gravity. After grooving to the dance music and being rocked by brutal vocals and aggressive guitar riffs, the audience got ready to take to the open space for Vanity Beach.
Vanity Beach were truly impressive. The songs they performed were mostly from the new album ‘A Life of Vice,’ including well-known singles ‘Batcave (We Come Out At Night)’ and ‘Garden of Cruelty’ and several “hits-to-be” like ‘Diving in Together,’ ‘Natalie And The End Of The World’ and ‘Bitch In A Body Bag.’ In comparison with the previous years, the band now look less gothic and sound less aggressive but more self-contained, original in melodies and arrangement and professional, so to say. You can see “at first chord” that they have grown up as a band by gaining valuable experience and having Jonny Lee brightening their sound.
On the stage everything flew round Jonas: while other members of the band remained reserved and in an “absorbed in their play” kind of static, he spellbound the audience with his demoniac looks, surreally lopsided moves and deep-toned vocal. He moved as a predator, jumping down from the stage together with a microphone stand scaring away the photographers and thrilling the audience. When the gig was over, the party went on with a few more DJ-sets. Elbowing my way to the exit I bumped into Ville Valo opening his embrace for Jonas and then a few times into model-looking girls shuttling between the bar and the backstage.
Vanity Beach are one of the most interesting and promising Finnish bands of 2000s. I do recommend you listen to their album ‘A Life of Vice.’ They are touring in Finland and probably somewhere else in Europe next fall, so don’t miss a chance to come to their gig. They say their next album is expected to be produced by Marilyn Manson’s synthesizer. So let’s keep an eye on Vanity Beach and see how far their talent, connections, luck and vanity will take them.
Review by Margarita Khartanovich
You can see live photos from this gig at the AMPED GALLERY
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