The 69 Eyes
October 5, 2009
Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA
By Dan Wall
Set List: Back in
Blood |Never Say Die| Lips of Blood| Gothic Gir|, Kiss Me
Undead| Dance D’Amour| Dead and Gone| Suspiria Snow White| The
Chair| The Good, the Bad and the Undead| Feel Berlin| Hunger|
Brandon Lee| Dead Girls Are Easy| Devils
Encore: Perfect Skin| Lost Boys
75 minutes
Scandinavia has become the new Hollywood as far
as sleaze rock is concerned. With such bands as the Backyard
Babies, The Hellacopters, Turbonegro and Hardcore Superstar (and
now, Mama Kin, Dynazty, Innocent Rosie and many others) joining
the recently defunct Hanoi Rocks as the best of the bunch, loud,
anthemic rock and roll is alive and well, even if it based
halfway around the world.
Every once in a while, one of these bands is
lucky enough to get support to hit the road in America, which
then allows me to provide you with my usual “this band is new
but not really and sounds like all of your heroes” rant that I
love to go into. This time around, it’s The 69 Eyes, a Finnish
quintet that encapsulates all that is great about goth, rock and
punk, and combines those influences into a sleazy presentation
that lovers of KISS, The Cult, Blue Oyster Cult, Alice Cooper,
The Stooges, and The Ramones should love.
The Eyes, also known as the Helsinki Vampires to
those who have already discovered the band during its nearly 20
years together, are a real, live rock and roll band. These guys
look, live and smell like a rock band. They sweat, bleed and
literally ooze the stuff, whatever it is; but you sure know it
when you see it (or hear or smell it, for that matter). I doubt
if anyone in this ramshackle outfit has showered since this week
or slept this month. Black hair, black leather, tats for
miles-I’m sure you get the drift.
But that’s part of what drives a real, dangerous,
fire-breathing rock and roll band, and these guys are all of
that and more. Remember early Guns N Roses? Dr. Feelgood-era
Crue? The Sex Pistols? That’s what these guys remind me of, but
with the band’s love of all things vampire mixed in. During the
75-minute set on the opening night of the band’s
Back in Blood
tour, the songs went by in blur of power chords, great melodies
and huge choruses that rocked the small room. And the band
performed as if there were 3000 fans in a theater at home, and
not 300 in a small club that could double as the band’s
rehearsal space.
Despite a career that now spans 10 records and 20
years, the band didn’t tour the U.S. until 2006, and it took a
live album from 2008,
Hollywood Kills,
to get the band noticed here at all. But noticed it was, and the
band’s new album,
Back in
Blood,
is not only its best yet but is my current frontrunner for rock
album of the year. A recent review compared how the band raised
the level of songwriting and vision on this album to what The
Cult did with
Electric,
an album that shot the band over the top in the states. The 69
Eyes hope the same can happen here with its new record, and I
can let you know quite enthusiastically that that comment got me
excited about the record, and I haven’t been let down ever since
I first heard it.
Onstage, the band is led by Elvis –lover and lead
vampire Jyrki 69, a towering presence with a brooding goth voice
and the ability to craft lyrics about bloodsuckers that make you
want to bet bitten. The rest of band (guitarists Bazie and Timo
Timo, bassist Archzie and Tommy Lee look and sound alike Jussi
69 on drums) are a powerful, solid group of pros who rock hard
and stay out of Dracula-er, Jyrki’s way.
How can you not love a song like “We Own the
Night”:
We own the night, you and I
We’re going to live forever
It’s in the stars, we’ll never die
If we stay together.
Simple, effective and straight to the point.
We’re vampires, we own the night, and we’ll never die unless we
go on True Blood or something like that. And this band just
doesn’t have 12 great new songs; it has been putting out great
music for years now. The term goth and roll was first generated
by its fans around the time the band shifted it’s early sound
from glam and hard rock and started dabbling in the goth genre,
when nods to The Sister of Mercy and The Mission started
creeping into the music, and although it took 20 years to mix
all of these disparate sounds and influences into a singular
vision, The 69 Eyes finally have done it on
Back in
Blood.
Even though the live album and previous albums
Angels
and Devils
(two separate releases) started the band on its way, the new
album is the band’s masterpiece. If you like those bands
mentioned and new sounds in general, pick up
BIB
and enjoy it.
And if you like real rock and roll, played the
way it was meant to be played in a small, sweaty club go see
this band at night-just remember to pack your wooden stakes and
garlic-and leather.
