Edit: This review was written the day after the concert, but since I was very busy (and got ill) I couldn’t edit my photos and hence couldn’t post this earlier than now.
In 2022, I bought a better compact camera to be able to take photos of Blind Channel at their tour with Electric Callboy. This band brought back my lost passion for concert photography and when I started taking photos at their shows I thought “One day I wanna be in the photo pit for Blind Channel.”
Well, that day was yesterday – so here we are with a concert review that is slightly clouded by the fact that I was partly focusing on my photography. But at the same time, this was probably one of my favourite BC shows so far.
Friendly reminder not to post any of those photos on Tumblr, Pinterest, Discord or any other social media – especially not without permission.
The Venue
I’ve been at the Turbinenhalle quite a few times in the past few years. I’ve seen it sold out and I’ve seen it so empty that not even the balcony was open. Before last night, I had no idea how full it would be. The fact that there wasn’t even a low ticket warning was slightly worrying, then again the venue has a capacity of about 1.800 people, according to the internet, so it’s quite big. Last time I’ve seen BC there they were opening for I Prevail, this time they were headlining and I really had my doubts they could fill it.
The Turbinenhalle is in the outskirts of Oberhausen, quite close to the big shopping mall CentrO, but still a bit too far away to use the free CentrO parking garage. The venue itself has a parking ground that costs 5€, but if you’re early enough you can easily park in the surrounding streets for free, as this part seems mainly like an industrial area where there’s almost no cars in the evening. I don’t think public transport is super close though, but I’ve never used it to get there, so I can’t be sure.
The venue has two halls and Turbinenhalle 2 is the smaller one in the back. I still remember when I was there for the first time and thought that it looked fairly new and modern. By now, it no longer does so. The queueing situation can be a bit messy in bad weather conditions because then there’s mud everywhere around the entrance, so be prepared for that if it has been raining for a while before the concert.
The concert room is in the upper floor. There must be some wheelchair access, because they are one of the few venues I’ve been to that have a designated wheelchair area next to the stage, on a small “podium” with a wheelchair ramp (not the best spot, but at least there is one and it’s not “Let’s just move the wheelchair around and see where we can park it”).
There’s also quite a big balcony which is rising in height towards the back, so that you should be able to see fairly well even further from the back. The toilets are clean and big and there are toilets both on the lower floor as well as on the balcony.
To buy drinks, you have to exchange money into tokens. I didn’t try paying with electronic cash, so I don’t know if it’s possible. You can tell them exactly which drinks you wanna get and you’ll get the exact amount of tokens you’ll need for that, so I’d do that because you have any tokens left you can not change them back. The exchange is in the lobby of the venue (upstairs).
Prices for drinks are reasonable, but once again this venue sells Pepsi and co. At least their Apfelschorle is good. Also I think there is no coat room, but they have lockers. I just never used them, so I don’t know how much one is. But I think you also need tokens for those lockers.
Beware of merch cuts. I am not 100% sure if they take them, or at least they might not take them at all shows (I’ve once seen Fiddler’s Green there and their merch prices were reasonable), but the Blind Channel merch was ridiculously overprized (95€ for the hoodie – their merch prices have recently risen after they seem to have changed their supplier and I think the t-shirt prices matched the prices online more or less, but the price of the hoodie was out of boundaries.)
Oh, also: The sound at the venue is good. All in all, the Turbinenhalle might be one of my favourite venues. It has flair.
Rock Band From Hell
Opener last night were Rock Band From Hell, who are probably well-known amongst BC fans because their drummer Mikko has been part of the Blind Channel crew in the last few years. Now Blind Channel took their Finnish friends along and it was a very good choice. I’d consider Rock Band From Hell as solid pop punk and I somehow felt teleported back into the days when I was into those Finnish rock bands like Negative, Private Line and Lovex. They were fun to watch and managed to warm up the crowd from the very start.
I can’t say much about their setlist – I’ve never listened to them before and I probably wouldn’t recognise the songs they played last night, but I really had a fun time listening to them. Also: Their stage outfits?! Great. It matched their music and their vibe and all in all this was just a very good performance.
And from a photographer’s POV I must say I was very thankful that the light was so good during their set – that’s not necessarily given for opening acts.
Ghøstkid
From the very start: Here we are at the reason why I was a little hesitant towards this tour. I’ve seen Ghøstkid two times last year, once as support for Bad Omens and once at Rocken Hilft in Essen. Each time I tried to give them a chance, although I personally am not the biggest fan of Sebastian Biesler. On tape, their music sounds quite nice – musically I don’t have much to criticise about their performance.
But let me be blatantly honest at this point: One thing that bugs me every single time I’ve seen them live (and about all the live recordings of Electric Callboy back in the days when Sebastian was still with them) is the fact that Ghostkiddo just isn’t a good live singer. Miraculously, no matter how good the overall sound at a venue is during the show, the sound during Ghøstkid always seems to be worse than the other bands and I don’t know if they just don’t have a good sound engineer, or if that is to cover the fact that Sushi misses quite a few notes. He’s a decent studio vocalist, but live his vocals are neither very strong, nor very on point.
Sorry if you hate me now, it’s just my very own opinion.
I’m also not a big fan of their performance in general. Ghøstkid have a way of presenting themselves that makes them seem excentric and a bit over the top. As a support act, they not only hype up the crowd but it rather seems like they try to make it all about themselves. Some people might like that, but it doesn’t speak to me personally.
It doesn’t speak to me either how much they spit at the crowd.
As I said, musically I don’t have much to criticise There are one or two songs I just vibe to and I caught myself dancing a little in the photo pit last night. I can’t even name the songs though. I can’t say much about the setlist either. They played quite a few songs of their new album and a few that sounded familiar from when I saw them last time.
All in all … once again a big nope. I rather feel like each time I see them I like them a bit less because there’s always something that adds up to my antipathy towards them and last night in the photo pit, the whole thing turned personal somehow. I am sorry, but … not my band.
Blind Channel
This band holds my heart in a tight grip and I was super nervous before their set started. First thing I noticed was their new stage banner with a new logo that basically reminded me of an American baseball team and I have no idea if that was intended. I also had so many questions in my mind. Would the light be better than during Ghøstkid? (Yes it was). Which outfits would they wear? (the most recent ones Olli made). Which song would be the opener? (Deadzone). For how long would they play? (75 minutes roughly).
My mind went blank and into working mode once they got on stage.
As I said, the set started with Deadzone, which was already quite intense as an opener (and if you know my album review, it’s not necessarily one of my favourite songs). It was followed by Where’s the Exit (absolute live banger) and Over My Dead Body (amazing crowd energy). Their energy – wow. Their performance – wow. Their sound – wow.
As it is typical for them, they played every single song of their new album EXIT EMOTIONS – and as it is also very typical for them, they did not play Sharks Love Blood (I am still waiting for this song, but I guess this was a VIP exclusive…). Generally, most songs last night were from Exit Emotions, LOTSAD and Violent Pop. Niko got a brief Violent Bob moment where he rapped a short bit of Deja FU and damn, I was so mad to hear a that snippet without hearing the actual entire song.
Besides their own songs, the setlist included a cover of System of a Down’s BYOB which gave us a nice Joonas-guitar-moment (so Tommi and Aleksi got their drum part, but I am still desperately waiting for a proper guitar solo from Joonas). AND Aleksi joined Joel for the vocals, which made my little fangirl heart melt because damn, how cool was that? Aleksi doing the screaming? Nice.
For Die Another Day, some fans had prepared little snippets of coloured tape that they had handed out in the queue, so people could put them over their phone flashlights and it looked really damn cool but the thing that absolutely broke me during the performance of this song was Joonas singing Rory’s part. I remember talking about that to a friend before, but I somehow dismissed it and when it really happened I instantly burst into tears. Give me a short moment to appreciate Joonas’ vocals. His voice is so damn beautiful, I’d love to get more of it. Thankfully he gets quite a few parts to sing during this tour.
I have already mentioned how the setlist was put together album-wise. My personal WIN that night which definitely added to the feeling that this was the best Blind Channel show I’ve been to so far was that they didn’t play Left Outside Alone. Deeply missed from my side were Autopsy and Alive or Only Burning, but I get that they need the time to showcase their entire new album plus the singles from the last albums.
Let me stress once again that their set was 75 minutes long – I think that’s longer than I Prevail played at their tour last year. And also one thing that kinda warms my fangirly heart is the fact how sincere Joel’s absolutely over-the-top behaviour on stage is. At some points he seemed overly dramatic, for example when at the end of the show he more or less collapsed on stage and looked like he couldn’t believe what was happening and like he was about to cry. With some artists I’d say “OMG that’s so staged”, but in case of Joel Hokka I totally believe that’s what he feels because I personally feel like this man can’t give any less than 120%. (Edit: I saw them again in Leipzig and found out that they didn’t tell that crowd as well that “this“ was the best show they ever played, so I think both BC and I agree that the Oberhausen show was a great one). Opening their tour in such a big venue, with such an intense crowd might’ve been special for them.
Speaking of the crowd: I spent a lot of time of the set on the balcony and had a good view on the pit and there was so much energy. The mosh pits were huge and the circle pit for Balboa super impressive. I still remember their show at Tuska in 2022, where we were about 10 people at most in the pit, or their show in Dresden in 2022, with not that many people either. (Edit: And I’ve seen the crowd in Leipzig this year, more on that in another review, but that crowd wasn’t very active). The Oberhausen crowd was massive and powerful and it was big fun to watch.
On a last fun note: Until the end of the set I wasn’t 100% sure if they remembered the name of the city they played at because they kept addressing the crowd as “Germany” (or “Deutschland”), but their final “Wir lieben dich, Oberhausen” convinced me otherwise.
Okay, this was lengthy and without much actual content, but damn, I had a great time, I still love this band dearly, although every single concert of theirs is a challenge for me and a constant battle against my anxiety. But it was worth it.
And I am eternally grateful for the photo pit experience I got.