HIM rock Pontiac

4-3-10 Originally published on Examiner.com by Tracy Heck

Saturday night, Finnish rock band HIM brought their North American tour to Clutch Cargos in Pontiac, Michigan.

Despite mass pandemonium involving entering the club and a cancellation by openers Dommin, whose lead singer Kristofer Dommin was battling laryngitis, the evening ended up being a good one.

Openers Drive A have been getting some bad reviews but they put on a decent set that included front man Bruno Mascolo crowd surfing and starting a massive circle pit in the crowd.

The other openers, We Are the Fallen  were quite impressive.  The band is getting ready to release their debut album shortly and their set included new single "Bury Me Alive".

The highlight was We Are the Fallen's cover of Madonna's "Like A Prayer", which front woman Carly Smithson loaded with feeling.

However, it was HIM that everyone came to see and they did not disappoint pulling out songs from every portion of their career and playing a number of new songs off of their new cd Screamworks:  Love In Theory and Practice.

Front man Ville Valo spent a good portion of the evening laughing and joking with the crowd and the band really seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Set highlights included a long jam session on "Wicked Game", which included Valo exiting the stage only to return and share how hard it had been for him to find the bathroom and encores "The Sacrament" and "Scared to Death".

HIM Setlist:
Like St. Valentine
Right Here in My Arms
Wings of a Butterfly
Heartkiller
Kiss of Dawn
Join Me
Love the Hardest Way
Wicked Game
Buried Alive by Love
Disarm Me [With Your Loneliness]
Killing Loneliness
Poison Girl
Katherine Wheel
Funeral of Hearts
Encore
The Sacrament
Scared to Death