Avatar @ Fållan, Stockholm, Sweden 5/2 – 26
Hahaha, I got so far with the whole thing of writing about albums I liked. I guess I’ll get to it after the show instead. I’ll be honest, I have a lot with my job and also school which doesn’t always give me the energy or time to write as much as I would like here. But that is about to change! Anyway, enough of that – let’s talk about the FUN stuff.
On Thursday last week I got up relatively early in the morning (for being me) and got on my very beloved FlixBus to Stockholm. That reminds me, I need to recap all my lovely readers here on what happened on the October tour, but that will be for a different day. Lets just say Flixbus and I have a… strange love and hate relationship to each other.
Anyway, once in Stockholm I headed over to my favorite coffe shop – Espresso House to have so lunch, because besides the concert, I had another little pitch stop to make – at Calm Body Modification. I got there, got my little right tragus pierced and headed off to my hotel and got ready for the show.
I have been at Fållan once before, to see specifically Avatar, on the Going Hunting tour so I was excited to see them there again. For today, they had been joined by Agabas and Alien Weaponry.
Agabas & Alien Weaponry
I had not had the chance or time to get familiar with them prior to the show due to commitment, but I really enjoyed both shows. I enjoyed the chaotic energy that Agabas brought, and I will ALWAYS have mad respect for any musician who decide to get right there in the wall of death or Mosh pit together with the fans.
I was also happily surprised by Alien Weaponry. I have heard the name before but never really got into it. But I loved it so much, so I’ll definitely check them out more. After that, the setting changed in the venue, old school cabaret music started floating out the speakers setting us in the mood for the circus to come.
Avatar
The lights went out, and the intro for “Captain Goat” started going off as Johannes came floating over the stage in a boat together with a goat, cloaked and with a lantern. What a way to set the mood and the start, and the crowd was feeling it. Johannes threw off the cloak and they headed straight into “Silence in the Age of Apes” – a song I love so much and the energy was on top! “The Eagle has Landed” followed suit, and.. It’s rare I see an entire crowd be so engaged. But I guess thats the thing.
Thats the thing with this band, we may only be three songs into this, but this is by far the best live band we have in Sweden right now. I swear it. After that banger, Johannes gave us a little speech about how Avatar is literally every where, deep inside us, all around us – literally, “In The Airwaves” before heading back into “Hail The Apocalypse” era and “Bloody Angel”.
And I know, I know it’s like one of their most popular song, but this song hits so incredibly different – just in general but even so live. And I’ll be honest about something – do you know what I find incredibly.. sexy? And that these men are especially good at? Synchronized headbanging. They are in such an incredible synch when headbanging it gets DIFFICULT to watch.
“Death and Glitz” from the new album quickly followed by “Blod” followed suit. The band gathered together in a closed off circle, as they have done before, to perform “Colossus” and then taking it up a notch and doing “Dance Devil Dance”. After this, the band left the stage and a piano was brought out for Johannes to have a little moment with us where he played us “Howling at the Waves” and “Tower”.
No lies, “Tower” is my ultimate crash out song and I may or may not have crashed out to my friends about some recent situations during this song. But that is also what Avatar is to me. They are my own, personal brand of therapy. They may not be Sabaton or Lordi, but there is no band who is as responsible for saving my life as them. I still remember from Going Hunting tour, when Johannes said that we should take all of our pain and trauma and put it onto them for the night. They have no idea how much they heal us.
After the piano disappeared, it was time for us to pledge our allegiance to the king, as he entered the stage on his golden throne accompanied by the sounds of “Glory to our King” followed by “Legend of the King” before getting dethroned and straight into “Let it Burn”. They finally wrapped up show with “Today We Must be Warriors” before leaving the stage.
Of course, they come back. And it started with a red little balloon going across the stage and they came back playing “Don’t Go In The Forest”. The band took a little break, and Johannes took the mic to tell us that we may be in the capital where the government is, BUT – they don’t know what true power is after standing on stage and mocking us, the crowd, for saying “one more time” rather than.. several more times. Gladly, he was being nice and they played us two more songs – “Hail The Apocalypse” and “Smells Like a Freakshow”.
At some point here, he again takes the mic to adress the us and them. That outside this venue is a cold, hard world that is out to get us but in here, we are all together and one and that Avatar will always be with us. Again, this band does not know how much they heal us. Thank you so fucking much, Avatar.
Thank you so much for always being there when no one else was or is. Thank you for saving our lives. Thank you for understanding us. And thank you so much for this incredible therapy session. It was exactly what the doctor ordered. I can’t wait to see you again.
// Sara
Sara Hammerzmith 
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