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Setlist
Sep 20 Macewan Hall Calgary, Canada
Sep 22 Vogue Theatre Vancouver, Canada Sep 23 Neumos Seattle, WA Sep 25 Regency Ballroom San Francisco, CA Sep 26 FONDA THEATRE Los Angeles, CA Sep 28 Gothic Theatre Denver, CO Sep 29 Sokol Auditorium Omaha, NE Oct 01 Mercury Ballroom Louisville, KY Oct 02 Agora Ballroom Cleveland, OH Oct 03 Irving Plaza New York, NY Oct 12 Klub B90 Gdansk, Poland Oct 16 Les Tanzmatten SÉlestat, France Oct 17 Salle des Fetes de Thonex Thônex Oct 23 The Mercury Cape Town Oct 24 Carfax Newton Newtown Oct 27 Turbinenhalle Oberhausen Oct 28 Hugenottenhalle Neu Isenburg Oct 30 Hala Euronic Zlin, Czech Republic Oct 31 Wisla Hall Krakow, Poland Nov 01 Huxleys Berlin, Germany Nov 03 Löwensaal Brownsburg, Canada Nov 04 Live Club Milan, Italy Nov 05 Estragon Bologna, Italy Nov 07 La Belle Electrique Grenoble, France Nov 08 L'Etage Rennes, France Nov 09 Aeronef Lille, France Nov 11 Academy Bristol, UK Nov 12 Ritz Manchester, UK Nov 14 Garage Glasgow, UK Nov 15 Forum London, UK Nov 20 Conrad Sohm Dornbirn, Austria Nov 21 TANZT! 2015 Munich, Germany Nov 22 Epic Metal Fest Eindhoven, Netherlands Nov 23 Orange Club Kiel, Germany Nov 24 VOXHALL Aarhus, Denmark Read More
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Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie recently stopped by Mill City Nights in Minneapolis, touring in support of their sixth studio album Origins (Nuclear Blast Records).
Eluveitie is an eight piece folk metal band from Switzerland. (That is probably the coolest sentence I'll ever be able to write in this blog.) They mix old school Celtic folk music with straight up metal music to make a genre that I honestly thought was a joke up until about a year ago. Folk metal is anything but a joke. It is quite possibly the coolest genre of music I have ever heard. It's something I can't listen to a lot because after a while, all of the songs start to sound the same to me. Seeing it live is a completely different story.
It's amazing to watch someone play a hurdy gurdy. It's even more amazing to watch someone play a hurdy gurdy while headbanging. How about a head banging violin player who is also amazingly talented. On top of all of this, add a heavy hitting drummer, a guitarist, bassist, a flute player, some other random instruments, a screamer and a female vocalist with pipes that any other singer could only dream of. Mix all of that with an energetic crowd and you have, in my opinion, one of the best live shows money can buy.
Everyone in the crowd was having a great time. At the beginning of their set, there was a good old fashioned mosh pit going on. Towards the end, it had turned into a straight up Riverdance competition complete with a can-can line. That all sounds like a joke but there was seriously a pit of grown men trying to Riverdance. That's part of the charm of the crowd at folk metal shows. There's no sense in taking yourself seriously, you won't have fun. Folk metal is all about having fun, drinking, and smiling. There was no lack of any of those things last night.
Eluveitie's music is more authentic sounding than majority of the other folk metal bands I have seen. Maybe that's why I like these guys so much. I've seen folk metal bands get up on stage with just guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards with effects. It's just not the same. Eluveitie does it right, they show up with these traditional instruments and actually know how to play them. I mean come on, the singer has a whole bag of various flutes that hangs from his microphone. Not just a flute, multiple flutes, multiple kinds of flutes. Eluveitie is the only band on the planet that would throw out a flute instead of a drumstick in the middle of their set (Yes, that happened last night. No, I did not catch it. Yes, I was devastated.)
Last Wednesday was my second time seeing Eluveitie. The first time I saw them, my roommate dragged me to the show. I honestly didn't know what I was getting into but I figured that I drag her to some really terrible shows so it's about time I suffer for her. Since that night, about a year ago, I have been craving my next Eluveitie show. This time I had a better idea of what I was getting into. I have been on a bit of a concert bender with only one night off so far this week and my next off night being maybe next Friday. Eluveitie is the highlight of this bender.
Eluveitie isn't the only folk metal band out there but out of all of the folk metal shows I've been to, they have, hands down, the best live show out of all of them.
P.S. If anyone reading this is going to one of their upcoming shows, please let me know. They had a sweatshirt for sale that said "Pure F**** Folk Metal" on the back that I want but I didn't have cash on me. I will send you money for the sweatshirt, shipping and a tip for your time if you can grab me a large one! Seriously.
Eluveitie is an eight piece folk metal band from Switzerland. (That is probably the coolest sentence I'll ever be able to write in this blog.) They mix old school Celtic folk music with straight up metal music to make a genre that I honestly thought was a joke up until about a year ago. Folk metal is anything but a joke. It is quite possibly the coolest genre of music I have ever heard. It's something I can't listen to a lot because after a while, all of the songs start to sound the same to me. Seeing it live is a completely different story.
It's amazing to watch someone play a hurdy gurdy. It's even more amazing to watch someone play a hurdy gurdy while headbanging. How about a head banging violin player who is also amazingly talented. On top of all of this, add a heavy hitting drummer, a guitarist, bassist, a flute player, some other random instruments, a screamer and a female vocalist with pipes that any other singer could only dream of. Mix all of that with an energetic crowd and you have, in my opinion, one of the best live shows money can buy.
Everyone in the crowd was having a great time. At the beginning of their set, there was a good old fashioned mosh pit going on. Towards the end, it had turned into a straight up Riverdance competition complete with a can-can line. That all sounds like a joke but there was seriously a pit of grown men trying to Riverdance. That's part of the charm of the crowd at folk metal shows. There's no sense in taking yourself seriously, you won't have fun. Folk metal is all about having fun, drinking, and smiling. There was no lack of any of those things last night.
Eluveitie's music is more authentic sounding than majority of the other folk metal bands I have seen. Maybe that's why I like these guys so much. I've seen folk metal bands get up on stage with just guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards with effects. It's just not the same. Eluveitie does it right, they show up with these traditional instruments and actually know how to play them. I mean come on, the singer has a whole bag of various flutes that hangs from his microphone. Not just a flute, multiple flutes, multiple kinds of flutes. Eluveitie is the only band on the planet that would throw out a flute instead of a drumstick in the middle of their set (Yes, that happened last night. No, I did not catch it. Yes, I was devastated.)
Last Wednesday was my second time seeing Eluveitie. The first time I saw them, my roommate dragged me to the show. I honestly didn't know what I was getting into but I figured that I drag her to some really terrible shows so it's about time I suffer for her. Since that night, about a year ago, I have been craving my next Eluveitie show. This time I had a better idea of what I was getting into. I have been on a bit of a concert bender with only one night off so far this week and my next off night being maybe next Friday. Eluveitie is the highlight of this bender.
Eluveitie isn't the only folk metal band out there but out of all of the folk metal shows I've been to, they have, hands down, the best live show out of all of them.
P.S. If anyone reading this is going to one of their upcoming shows, please let me know. They had a sweatshirt for sale that said "Pure F**** Folk Metal" on the back that I want but I didn't have cash on me. I will send you money for the sweatshirt, shipping and a tip for your time if you can grab me a large one! Seriously.
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Eluveitie at Mill City Nights, Minneapolis (16 September 2015) |
