Concert review: Avatar with The Last Band in Munich. By Alex Bock

December 20, 2016

Munich, Backstage Halle, Dec. 9^th, 2016

Another night at my favorite venue, another packed room full of excited people.

Two Swedish bands were playing that night. The first band was actually called ‘The Last Band’. Take a raspy voice, some dirty guitar riffs and rhythm and you get an idea what the band sounds like. Reminds me of a slightly heavier version of an US band called Junkyard. The Last Bands’ latest record ‘The Fall’ has been released in November 2016. During the tour the band ran out of CD’S, so it’s safe to say they’re having a good run.

For friends of theatrics, Avatar is probably THE band. The whole set is a real show, not just the instruments and the music, also the way front man Johannes Eckström acts and talks. Speeches starting with ‘Meine Damen und Herren, Brüder und Schwestern, liebe Kinder….’ (Ladies and gentleman, brothers and sister, dear kids…) in his raspy dark voice, plus the make-up … this could be the beginning of something really dark, but in this case a fun show to mosh and sing along. Definitely a band one has to see live to enjoy them 100%. No recorded tracks can give you that experience. They played a lengthy set, not one dull moment there. Avatars’ latest record ‘Feathers and Flesh’ has been released in May 2016. Since then they did a tour through the US and now an extensive tour through Europe, with lots of sold out shows on the way. They will play at Shiprocked 2017 – January 16^th. Go save yourself a place on board.