HIM brings North American tour to Clutch Cargos

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

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

View from the Clutch Cargos balcony during sound check

c: Tracy Heck

HIM is touring behind their latest album Screamworks:  Love In Theory and Practice.
Saturday night's show started out on a sour note with the venue security having a hard time organizing the entrance of VIP ticket holders versus the rest of the crowd.
They ended up letting everyone in at once and herding everyone to the club's tight upstairs where, eventually after mass confusion, they allowed the VIP's five minutes to find their spots before they let the rest of the packed crowd rush in.
I've been to a number of shows at Clutch Cargos over the years and I have never seen them do anything like this and hopefully they will never attempt it again.
The crowd was also disappointed to learn that rock band Dommin would not be playing because front man Kristofer Dommin had laryngitis.  However, the rest of the band took the time to still come out to the merchandise booth and spend time with their fans.
Despite the hectic start and the crowd frustration, the rest of the evening went well.
Drive A opened the show with a decent set.  They don't exactly fit in with the HIM audience (they remind me a lot of early Sum 41), but they weren't bad.
Drive A front man Bruno Mascolo even did some crowd surfing and started a big circle mosh pit, which took the crowd by surprise.
We Are the Fallen were  impressive, especially since they have yet to release their debut album but it was really hard to hear front woman Carly Smithson's voice.
The band is comprised of former Evanescence members Ben Moody, John LeCompt and Rocky Gray and former American Idol contestant  Smithson.
We Are the Fallen's set was full of music off of their upcoming debut including new single "Bury Me Alive".  They also performed a stand out cover of Madonna's "Like A Prayer".
Finally, the band everyone had come to see, HIM, took the stage and entertained the crowd with a 16-song set list comprised of material from every point of their career.
Throughout the tour, HIM has been changing up their set list every night so it leaves a nice unpredictable vibe to their shows.
Saturday night, the band seemed relaxed and happy to be performing.  They've been having a lot of sound problems on this tour but despite some negative feedback, which front man Ville Valo alluded to by demonstrating giving his microphone head, the sound and acoustics sounded great.
Valo was in rare form joking and rambling throughout the evening including a long rant about watching an Animal Planet show on obese animals and how their interactions remind him of the band, comparing himself to Joe Cocker because of his shaking hands due to cigarette withdrawal. dissing a girl in the audience who would not stop yelling for "Scared to Death" the entire evening and talking about the concept of love which somehow led to a discussion on Michael Jackson and Valo singing a portion of "The Girl is Mine".
HIM took the stage to the strains of the Shangri-Las' "Dressed In Black" and began playing new song "Like St. Valentine".
They closed the show with classic "The Sacrament" and, to the delight of the girl in the crowd, new favorite "Scared to Death".
Set highlights included crowd faves "Join Me In Death" and "Funeral of Hearts" and new songs "Love the Hardest Way" and "Disarm Me (With Your Loneliness).
HIM's cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" also stood out with a long instrumental jam in the middle that allowed Valo to go use the bathroom and the band to shine.
Upon his return, Valo complained about the bathroom being down a number of flights of stairs and shared a hilarious story about Ozzy Osbourne peeing in a bucket at a show.

HIM Setlist:
1. Like St. Valentine
2. Right Here in My Arms
3. Wings of a Butterfly
4. Heartkiller
5. Kiss of Dawn
6. Join Me In Death
7. Love the Hardest Way
8. Wicked Game
9. Buried Alive by Love
10. Disarm Me [With Your Loneliness]
11. Killing Loneliness
12. Poison Girl
13. Katherine Wheel
14. Funeral of Hearts
Encore
15. The Sacrament
16. Scared to Death