Live Review : The Rasmus + Overlaps @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on October 31st 2022
Overlaps are a female fronted band from Italy. The sound is a bit muddy to start with and there's not a lot of power in her voice but it's a very bouncy beat. There’s plenty of chances for a bit of crowd participation as they are quite poppy, as well as just a little bit gothy. Some of the music reminds me a bit of the Sisters Of Mercy in places. It's ok but not grabbing me, although the youngsters in front of me seem to be loving them. I didn’t get any standout tracks but by the end of the set they had grown on me and I was quite enjoying them and I thought their mishmash of styles and genres actually worked very well. I also enjoyed their energy and enthusiasm. They got a warm reception from the crowd but I did note that the playing of Blink 182’s ‘All The Small Things’ on the between-band P.A. got a better one. Make of that what you will.
Headliners The Rasmus are Finland’s second favourite goth band (trailing behind the legend that is Ville Vallo’s Him) who managed to score a worldwide hit song in the early 2000s. They are renowned for their black clothes, black feathers and, black eyeliner and the set starts with a deep, dark heartbeat which seems appropriate. Whatever you think of their brand of lite-rock and catchy choruses you certainly get your money’s worth with this band – they deliver an 18-song main set that spans their 20-year career, then chuck in a couple of encores just for good measure. The sound is commercial euro pop rock with a slightly sinister underbelly - there's plenty of woah-oh-oh to keep me happy, lots of melody and happy rhythms but at the same time there’s just a touch of the sinister, a smidgeon of darkness underpinning the whole thing. The band jump and prance throughout and so do the crowd. They do make big use of backing tracks, it seems to be a big thing with European bands at the moment, so there are keys and backing vocals on stage that aren't on stage if you know what I mean. Thankfully this enhances the sound rather than annoys me, so although I pull a bit of a face I also forgive them.
There’s a guitar solo from newest band member Eppu who, like so many other northern European women that I have seen recently, appears to have forgotten to put pants on. It’s a bit jangly but also haunting, it was nice but I’m not sure if it was really necessary? It killed the mood a little, but then it morphed into a power ballad from the far reaches of the graveyard. Aki the drummer stands up a lot, it’s nice to have a drummer that I can actually see! A new song ‘Fireflies’ flirts with the edges of power metal but never really makes it as far as the power or the metal. We get a 3-song acoustic break about halfway through the set, and while some seem to take it as a chance to head for the bar I actually quite enjoy it; It’s atmospheric and gentle, in a folky, faerie way. Then Laurie produces a kazoo and it all goes a bit weird, there are balloons in the crowd and a lot of swaying happens. Back to the full band with full power and it’s also back to the pop energy - it's all gone a bit epic and air punchy now! It's Halloween so they rip through the Ghostbusters theme making it fast and funky, it’s a definite crowd favourite. I’ve been searching for a word to describe Laurie’s voice and the one I have settled on is pathos. It’s light and a little bit quavery in places, with a wistfulness that I find very appealing. Of course they finish the main set with “That Song”, and as the first notes of ‘In The Shadows’ blast out from the track machine the crowd gores wild. This is what most of them have come for, and when the band dedicate it to Ukraine the whole room just erupts. When they come back on for the encore the bass player gives us an impromptu and very unrehearsed version of Oasis’s ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ just because this is Manchester, and the crowd join in with gusto. There’s some debate at Rockflesh HQ about whether The Rasmus fit the definition of rock, and do they belong in our hallowed pages? The answer from me is a resounding yes, they provided a superb night of entertainment and they are, after all, from Finland!
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