BACKYARD BABIES (Live)

There was tons of teased hair and black eyeliner on sight when Sweden’s favorite outcasts performed their annual club show in Helsinki. This time they brought along a film crew to save the occasion on DVD for future generations. The turnout for the first night was surprisingly low, but this was an extra date the band was kind enough to add to their schedule since the original show sold out really fast… so they were here to play for two nights in a row.

Could the promoters please get it into their heads that Monday is not a good live gig day? The turnout was low, and so amount of beverages consumed is kept low and the crowd in general is still in recovery from the shock of having survived the week’s first working day. This does not make for a responsive and active audience, which is one of the main ingredients of a great show.

The band had dressed up nicely since they were filming this concert. Since this was a live show and the temperature on stage usually gets quite warm, the cool, but undoubtedly hot coats, were soon discarded. Dregen was sporting a cool Captain America t-shirt, which sums up Backyard Babies quite nicely. This band has a cartoon feel to them. They look like they could in fact have their own super-powers, and you half expect the guitarist Dregen to take off in a flight… instead you get the sweat and sorta nervous tick movements. It’s seems impossible for this man to keep still. Contrasting to the hyperactive, guitar-slinging sidekick, the singer Nicke mainly keeps standing behind the mike stand looking extremely cool in his gypsy/gangster inspired genuine Rock star attire, shooting an occasional sneer at the crowd.

Dregen’s way to wake up the crowd was to render blame for making them feel like they were in Norway by not making enough noise. That was easily fixed.

The singer Nicke revealed that a couple of the songs were actually about him. “A Song For The Outcast” is about Nicke’s decision to blow off school and work and be an outcast. “Say When” is about his experience, which he was sure most of us had shared, of ending up taking the wrong person home with you and regretting it in the morning.

They started in high gear with “Everybody Ready,” and then slowed down, and even dragged on a bit, but ended up lifting the roof with the encore made in groove heaven. You can’t beat the combination of such classic rock songs as “Brand New Hate” followed by “Minus Celsius.” Both songs were competing for the title of the coolest song in the bands entire repertoire. The show was over way too fast, but on the other hand, you just cannot follow an ending like that. Nicke modestly sent the crowd home by saying, “See ya next year” instead of “next night.”