Thursday, July 2, 2009

The 69 Eyes, June 19th 2009, Brisbane Australia




To see Jyrki 69 perform live, one could be forgiven for not being able to decide if what they were witnessing was more Bowie or more Alice Cooper; I’d probably say more like the lovechild of Elvira and Duran Duran but it’s a hard call.

The thing that’s easiest to notice with this band is that they are pretty damn good. Somewhere lost on the road between Guns N Roses and The Cure; The 69 Eyes seem to be the embodiment of “Goth N Roll”, a term penned with these guys in mind.

With the entrance of drummer, Jussi 69 strutting onto stage and wrangling the crowd into a manic exhuberance, it was all hardcore, gloomy, leather-clad deliciousness from then on. With a setlist of some of the hottest tracks spanning the group’s 20 odd year career there was not a moment of downtime for the crowd to catch their breath as hit after hit was thrust out with as much enthusiasm as vocalist Jyrki’s pelvis.





With the crew of “Helsinki Vampires” to back him up, Jyrki channelled the stage presence and charisma of Elvis with more than a hint of the rock legend’s quintessential snarl. The band were tight and on form showing how rock is supposed to be done and hopefully teaching a few of the youngsters a couple of tips along the way.





Crowd favourites: “Gothic Girl”, “Perfect Skin”, “Feel Berlin”, and tribute to the late actor “Brandon Lee” all rocked hard. I had to tip my hat to the lads; it’s not an easy thing to animate a venue full of goths and emos, but it was done with seemingly little effort.

I have to point out, as a photographer, these guys are such a delight to capture on film. Guitarist Timo-Timo is a natural born poser who didn’t put a foot wrong and seemed to be in constant awarness of my camera (and loved it!), and of course Jyrki 69 always had a pout or dirrty snarl ready at hand, not to mention the arsenal of leather and chains that never go awry on the old digicam!





So, for this particular show being only the 2nd gig for the band in Australia ever, and judging by the reaction of its audience; I think The 69 Eyes are well on their way to absolute world domination.


-Suzi Pike

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