Sonata Arctica

Live at The House of Blues

Hollywood, California

September 18, 2009

Review and Photos by Travis Baumann

Sonata Arctica took the stage to massive chanting from the sold out crowd at the House of Blues. An epic keyboard opening gave way to "Black and White" off of Unia which is my favorite song of theirs and a very powerful one at that, so it was a great way to open the set.

It was good to see such an enthusiastic audience for them and everyone was singing along and pressing against the barrier.

The lead singer welcomed the crowd and announced they were doing the single off their new album entitled "Flag in the Ground". Again the audience sang along to every word which I was surprised by because the new album wasn't due out in the States for another four days.

It is a good song, extremely different from most of the metal genre in that it is a love song based on the colonization and land division of the Western United States without a bit of angst or other common traits found in metal music.

This song was really the only one off of the new album that I recall. They switched back to the previous album, Unia for "Paid in Full" another of their hits which induced crowd surfing and more fanatical screaming from the audience.

"Full Moon" off one of their earlier releases was perfect for their wolf motif and backdrop. They really define melodic metal in the way they combine their voices and utilize keyboards to build a melancholy yet beautiful sound layered with guitar.

Due to some technical problems from a last minute opening act, time was short with the all ages curfew type rules. Since they were opening for Dragonforce, their set times got shortened. They said they had to cut a song, but didn't elaborate on it, just chalked it up to the first day of the tour so things like that happen.

They went into another favorite of mine, "Don't Say a Word" for their next song which went over very well with the audience. The singer was very friendly and worked the crowd up with his energy, moving around contiuously.

They finished off their set with a medley of sorts starting off with an old world "Vodka" sing along getting the entire crowd clapping and chanting "I need some Vodka, bring me some Vodka".  

It was hilarious especially watching all the parents who were talked into bringing their nine year old kids to the show who didn't realize just because Dragonforce are in Guitar Hero that this was a real metal show filled with adult die hard metal heads who like to drink.

The song switched gears into a melodic instrumental called "Everything Fades to Grey" and then finally an epic keyboard atmosphere piece while the band locked arms and took a bow.

It was a great show, all be it a little short for those of us who know and love Sonata Arctica and judging from the fact that they sold out of literally every single piece of merchandise on the very first day of the tour, a huge amount of the audience did in fact love Sonata Arctica.

I saw them last year at the Wiltern with Nightwish and overall I would say this was the better show both sound and performance wise so I am really glad I got to see it.  Now if only I had made my way to the merchandise booth earlier in the night I could support them in style.

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