Paara recently released their impressive debut album Yön olevainen puoli (our review of which can be read here) and in support of the release, took to UK shores to tour in support of it. We headed down to the second show of the tour (and only their second live show in total!) to witness the band for ourselves.
Opening the show was Exquisite Ending (7/10). Having caught the band at Eradication a few weeks earlier, the band didn’t make the most tremendous impression on me at the time, but no longer confined to being ‘one band out of many’, they really came into their own. Despite the set had largely the same structure as their previous one, it somehow had a lot more bite and although the fact it would have been nice to have a little more crowd interaction between the songs, the set flowed very well. Additionally, the aesthetics to the band was stunning – from the top-notch corpse paint and well-crafted outfits to the television in the middle of stage displaying black and white imagery throughout the set, there wasn’t a chance of you forgetting the performance!
Up next was Sidious (8/10), who I had high hopes for due to them being billed as featuring members of Eye Of Solitude (a band with a crushing live show and incredible music to match) and happily, they did not disappoint. Playing an impressive set, the music was perfect to bang your head along to and the way all the members moved in sync with one another was something to behold. The music, although unfamiliar to me, just sounded great and there was no way you couldn’t help but get absorbed into it – which is certainly the sign of a good live band! It’s clear that this band is destined for bigger things.
Due to the two strong sets from Exquisite Ending and Sidious, Paara (8.5/10) had some difficult acts to follow but they absolutely stepped up to the mark and delivered from start to finish. It was a little mind-blowing that this was only Paara’s second live performance because they performed like a seasoned band that had played countless shows together, although at times it did feel like they were a little restrained with their performance, not quite letting go completely, but this is just a minor nuance in the grand scheme of times as it was a very fantastic set from the Finnish fivepiece. One particular highlight was the rendition of Aikaan hautautunut – the way the female vocals were played out whilst the band stood with their backs to the crowd really added atmosphere to an already-atmospheric song and when the heavy section kicked in afterwards, it really hit you like a tonne of bricks. The contrast was superb!
As a whole, it was a great night filled with some great music and if any of these bands are playing a show near you in the future, make sure you go and check them out!
