First thing: This is a combined review. If there’s a band that I love from the deepest bottom of my heart, it’s not unlikely that I’ll visit more than one show of their tour. This applies to Self Deception, a Swedish alternative rock / metalcore band that is my absolute favourite Spotify discovery so far. I’ve had their song Tic Toc (Brace For Impact) in my mixtapes several times, followed by Stockholm Hearts and what shall I say: I’ve lost my heart to this band. I’ve already seen them in May in Nijmegen when they toured with Dead By April (never have I regretted this much that I hadn’t bought tickets for their show in Cologne as well, but that date was so inconvenient). So when they announced their headline tour in Germany, I couldn’t buy tickets fast enough.
Best decision of my life. Self Deception climbed the high ranks of being my favourite band in 2023. Sorry, Blind Channel. Sorry, Lost Society. Sorry, Eluveitie. You didn’t stand a single chance. Those Swedes are playing in their very own league. And I am not yet sure if I will find the right words for this blog post to express my feelings without going into full fangirl mode.
Their tour was once again a Swedish triple, as they came with Those Without and Awake The Dreamer as support. While we had seen Awake The Dreamer before as well (they were also part of the tour with Dead By April), Those Without were completely new to us. And in that line up, they seemed like an outsider at first glance, as Those Without play pop punk – in contrast to the much heavier music of Awake The Dreamer and Self Deception. I didn’t mind though, the Fall Out Boy concert hadn’t been too long ago and I love some good pop punk. And that’s definitely what Those Without have to offer. With each show, I enjoyed their set a little more. It was a great warm up, they had a nice energy and they were absolutely adorable sweethearts. Entertainment-wise, my personal highlight was their set in Hannover, when the bassist’s guitar strap ripped and they had to get a chair for him so that he could continue the show. The way they dealt with this situation was amazing and added some spice to their show. 10/10, would definitely recommend and go see them again đ
As I have mentioned before, I was already familiar with Awake The Dreamer. And while I enjoyed their performances this time a lot more than in May, I have to admit that they still didn’t quite catch me. Generally speaking, I like their stage energy, they seem sympathetic and everything. And especially performance-wise I enjoyed it more this time than in May, when I kinda had the impression that they were more or less rushing through their set, pushed by their back track, with little to no interaction with the crowd. This was much better this time and overall I had a much better experience than in May. I would wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone who’s into metalcore.
BUT. Their music didn’t fully convince me. And I guess that is okay. After all, one doesn’t have to like everything, right? It was okay and with each time, I got more into them. Still, they’re not the type of band I’d actively listen to or go watch as a headliner (I probably wouldn’t mind seeing them as support or at a festival though).
So what’s left is Self Deception. And I know that in my review of Smash Into Pieces I ranted about the short set of just an hour. The same thing is the reason why I was disappointed after seeing I Prevail in March. And now I admit: Self Deception didn’t play any longer than that (which is a goddamn pity because I would not say no to a longer set), but I didn’t mind. Maybe that’s because I love their music a lot more, knew all of their songs (while both SIP and I Prevail played a lot of songs that I didn’t know because I’m simply not as much into their music) and because Self Deception have a great stage energy. I can’t tell what it is. But I had absolutely no reason to rant afterwards (except, as I said, that I could listen to them for much longer…).
To be honest, at first I was a little worried because Self Deception are not touring with their regular singer Andreas. As he took a break for self-care, Self Deception do their shows until the end of the year with the Swedish singer Simon Peyron as a replacement. And I didn’t know what to expect. But I was blown away. Simon has a great personality on stage, his performance was amazing (although I must admit that sometimes you could hear that it’s probably not his „preferred“ vocal range – at least that was my impression) and as far as I can tell, he’s an amazing person, too. I’m thankful that he filled in for Ante to make this tour happen and he truly did a great job.
Their setlist consisted of songs of their latest two albums, Shapes and You’re Only As Sick As Your Secrets, plus their (almost – if we don’t count Feeding Demons featuring Dead By April) latest banger Scandinavian Dream and a cover of Roxette’s The Look that blew me away (and good god, this song has followed me since. It’s like the ghost of those shows that’s haunting me. Never before have I heard „The Look“ as often as after those three shows).
Well, actually the entire set blew me away because there was not a single song that I didn’t enjoy to the fullest from beginning to end. Maybe this is why I should be happy after all that they only played for an hour. I partied so hard throughout the entire set at every single show that I wouldn’t have been able to continue for much longer anyway. There wasn’t a single break to rest and calm down a little, one great song after another. (Great fun if you’ve just recovered from a pretty bad cold …)
There’s so much more I could say, but mostly I am lacking the words. The way they interact with each other is full of respect and love for each other. The way they interact with their audience is full of gratitude. They obviously enjoy being on stage and doing what they love – and they enjoy giving something back. And off-stage, they’re the most sympathetic, humble and entertaining bunch of people I’ve ever met. At least it feels like that. When I gave them photos I had taken in May to sign them, they thanked me. Excuse me? I am the one to say thank you? They also seemed so excited when they heard that we would attend more than one show. While talking to them I got the impression that they struggle with believing that there are people who genuinely enjoy their music and their shows đ It was heartwarming.
In total, I can say that I love this band from the deepest bottom of my heart. And on a more personal note, I also have to thank them – because I was allowed to bring a better camera than my normal „concert camera“ to their show in Hannover, which was a nice test run. Since the photos in this post are from Mainz (Sony Cybershot RX-100 V) and from Hannover (Canon EOS R8, unfortunately with a not-so-good kit lense – and without any skills or deeper knowledge about the camera), you can get an impression of the difference it made (and yes, I am well aware that by no means I’d ever reach a level to *ever* shoot a concert properly, but this was the closest to this experience I could ever get).
So … tack sĂ„ mycket, Self Deception and see you in February in Oulu.