Lordi

Live at The Whisky A Go-Go

West Hollywood, California

February 8th, 2017

Review and Photos by Travis Baumann

Lordi are a theatrical, melodic Heavy Metal band out of Finland. They are renowned for their live presentation which incorporates cinema quality costuming and larger than life horror genre personalities.

Never breaking character, Mr. Lordi is joined by his fellow monsters on stage and they bring a mixture of hard hitting rock and roll and a heavy dose of comedic tongue-in-cheek, including inter-song banter the could qualify as a stand-up routine at points.

Founder and enigmatic leader, Mr. Lordi started this project over twenty five years ago and last year they released their eighth studio album, "Monstereophonic".

Doused in their thematic theatrics, the new album also has a sub-moniker, "Theaterror vs. Demonarchy" and breaks down in to two parts. The first follows their standard campy Metal anthems and gore drenched humor with the opening song being, "Let's Go Slaughter He-Man (I Wanna Be the Beast-Man in the Masters of the Universe)".

The second half, "Demonarcy", weaves a six part saga telling the woes and victories of "The Undead Son, The Bloodsucking Count, The She-Wolf and The Witch" and also has a heavier sound with nice chugging riffs.

I have never seen Lordi before, despite being a fan for many years, so I was really excited when they announced their North American tour last year. I was finally going to get to see them in all of their demonic peeling flesh.

Joining Mr. Lordi on stage were Amen on guitar, Ox on bass guitar, Hella on keyboards, and Mana on drums. All of them look like really cool monsters but something about Hella's dead doll look I found the most creepy.

As an introduction, the infamous Skeletor from the Masters of the Universe came out and spoke to the crowd, ushering in the carnival of horrors. They played the He-Man song for the opener and it really is a fun track, especially for someone like me that grew up with the cartoon. Skeletor reappeared towards the end of the song holding He-Man's severed head, raising it to the cheering fans.

Mr. Lordi addressed the audience for the first of many times and said he knew it was a Wednesday night but that none of us had to go to school or work tomorrow, all we had to do was tell our teachers and bosses that Mr. Lordi said so and to send them a picture of him and we should be fine.

The set list ranged from more material off the new album with "Hug You Hardcore" and the awesome, "Down With the Devil" to their earliest hits, "Would You Love a Monsterman?" and "Who's Your Daddy?"

We got cool solos from Hella on keyboards and later Mana on drums with illuminated drum sticks in an otherwise darkened room. We also got other theatrical bits such as when a nun ran out on stage just to be beaten to death by Mr. Lordi. At another point a bishop in papal regalia came out and burned Mr. Lordi's forehead with a large cross but Mr. Lordi overcame him, throwing him to the ground and smiting him with a heartfelt stomp.

Towards the end of the main set, Mr. Lordi went full beast mode and spread his huge bat-like wings as they sang "Hard Rock Hallelujah" and "Devil Is a Loser".

All in all, they played for over an hour and a half and sounded spot-on. They really transformed the Whisky stage with their own lighting and back drops, enhancing their presence and giving us all a dark spectacle to remember.

I had a blast and highly recommend checking these guys out. I think the pictures speak for themselves though. I have to apologize in advance, I could not get a decent picture of Mana hidden in the back of the drum kit and enshrouded in evil mist, but needless to say, he looked monstrously awesome just like the rest of the band.

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