HIM concert review - Warfield, San Francisco
November 15th, 2007As you may already know, H.I.M. is one of my favorite bands. I got their newest CD Venus Doom the weekend it hit the stores, own all their CDs,
but missed seeing them at the Projeck: Revolution show. Luckily, the second time around this tour in San Francisco, I got a chance to see them with fellow pretentious critic Kate and two other beautiful friends of mine from the softer gender.
Bleeding Through opened for them, and they were mostly forgettable except for their keyboardist Marta, who looks like she just put some clothes on after a Penthouse photoshoot. Wow! She could also play. But their music was nothing spectacular. Kate told me she had already seen them this year when she went with fellow pretentious critic Badman to see Marilyn Manson and Slayer.
They played a short set, then left, leaving HIM’s six or seven roadies to design a strange set - rugs and stained glass lanterns, with weird lighting fixtures. I was thinking it looked tacky until the lights went off and it actually looked pretty good.
H.I.M came on and the crowd went wild. They played mostly songs from their newer two albums, neglecting entirely Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights, my favorite H.I.M album.
As a band, they were tight and hit all the right notes, but their sound engineer needs to be fired, ASAP! He was horrible, horrible. This was my fifth concert this year, and of the major acts, H.I.M had the worst sound. As big as they are (they’re all over the charts in Europe), they should have had bigger sound. The ladies who went with me agreed, so it wasn’t just me.
The Warfield is a good venue, so that’s not an excuse. I’ve seen Judas Priest there and they were perfect.
They did play Bleed Well, my favorite song from Venus Doom. H.I.M knew how hard-core their fans were, so they played a lot of more obscure stuff, non-singles. It’s always a pleasure to see a band do that. I get sick of seeing bands play only their singles, and it’s usually their singles I get sick of first anyways.
Besides the sound, ’twas a good show. Ville Valo has a gorgeous voice and Linde played some sick leads. Gas is one heck of a drummer as well. He did things live he doesn’t do in the albums. They all have wonderful stage presence, and you could tell they liked being there.
After the show, I was in the bathroom and some guy in his 60s (probably a Warfield veteran) asked who the singer was. I told him Ville Valo from Finland. He said he had a beautiful voice and that they’ll be around for awhile. Always a good thing to hear someone you could tell who’s been to hundreds of shows say something like that.
H.I.M. were here a few weeks ago and I couldn’t find anybody with whom to go, so I missed it. I had one guy call them psuedo goth. Whatever.
I saw a number of good shows at the Warfield when I lived there. Two best were Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and Bauhaus’ first reunion tour.
Kathleen - It’s too bad you didn’t go. Would have loved to read what you wrote about the show.
I know Badman loves Bauhaus. They’re in his tier I bands.
Hi there… You know this group sounds good but I have never heard of them. I will have to go check them out. Are they are on YouTube do you know?? Just wondering. Anyway hope all is well.
Tweety - Yes, they’re all over Youtube. Put in Ville Valo instead of Him, because it will be more accurate.
I’m mad at myself for being too much of a wuss to go alone. I need to get the latest CD, still. I blew my music budget buying all the Joy Division re-releases.
Never heard of them, I’m afraid. What can I say? I’m a music tard.
Kathleen - I’ve never been to a show alone. I’ve been to movies alone, but not concerts.
SME - Maybe they haven’t hit Canada yet. Have you heard of The Birthday Massacre? They’re a Canadian band I like a lot. We saw them a few months back.
Hey I just e-mailed you and also I will write that down to have hubby listen with me tonight when he comes home. He might have listened to them on the radio but since we moved into the house we moved the stereo down stairs and I dont like being down there by myself so I dont have the music upstairs like we used to have.. LOL.
I like HIM. Yeah, their sound was bad, but the show was good.
HIM and Velvet Revolver are the two bands I need to see that I haven’t yet.
Tweety - I’m not sure what kind of music you like. They call themselves “love metal.” They’re a metal band, but very, very mellow for metal music.
Kate - ‘Twas. Glad you could join us. You’re always fun to go to concerts with, and you’re better looking than Badman.
Skeletorsambora - You have to see H.I.M. Sure, their sound was bad, but they’re still a band you have to see live.