Orbit Room plays host to HIM

4-8-10 Originally published on Examiner.com by Tracy Heck

Tuesday night, the Orbit Room in Grand Rapids, Michigan played host to the North American HIM tour.

c: Tracy Heck

Once again, the show was packed making it hard to move around at all.

The show opened with a performance by Drive A, who continued to shock the crowd with their antics;  jumping out into the audience to crowd surf and starting a massive mosh pit.  Unfortunately, front man Bruno Mascolo seemed to have no regard for the largely female audience as he kicked and pushed his way into the crowd.

Drive A's sound is similar in style to early Sum 41 and they put on a decent set.  17-year old Mascolo is still finding his voice but in a few years I'm sure you'll be hearing more about them.

Tuesday's Grand Rapids show marked the return of Dommin to the stage after front man Kristofer Dommin had to cancel a few shows due to laryngitis and you would have never known it by Dommin's set and the reaction they got from the crowd.

The band put on a energetic seven song set that ended with them passing out their trademark roses to the crowd.

Dommin opened with the track "New" and closed with "Without End", one of their more popular songs off of their latest album Love Is Gone.

The highlight of the set was their cover of Depeche Mode's "People Are People".

The last opener was We Are the Fallen, who once again put on a solid set full of songs off of their upcoming debut album Tear the World Down, which will be out May 11.

In addition to the title track, the group also performed their latest single "Bury Me Alive" and a powerful cover of Madonna's "Like A Prayer".

Unfortunately, it remained hard to hear front woman Carly Smithson's vocals.

HIM once again opened their set with "Like St. Valentine" and front man Ville Valo closed the song by ditching his mike stand for the rest of the show, which allowed him to move around a bit more and interact with the crowd and the other band members.

The band's set list was full of songs from their latest album Screamworks: Love In Theory and Practice as well as material from points throughout their career.

Set highlights included a fantastic version of "Killing Loneliness" and "Poison Girl" and encores "The Sacrament" and new single "Scared to Death".

At one point, someone tossed a hat on stage and Valo proceeded to spend time placing it on bassist Mige Paananen's head.  He also spent time trying to play the different instruments throughout the evening.

During new song "Love the Hardest Way", Valo forgot the words and had the crowd sing them to him and after his bathroom break during their cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" he forgot where he was at in the song and instead began to mumble the words to Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" instead.

The only rough moment of the show was when a fan tossed a Venus Doom lithograph on stage that belonged to band friend and MTV star Bam Margera.  Valo seemed confused and upset that someone had it and left the stage to confer with one of the band's roadies.

Afterwords, the mood lightened again and the show continued on to it's conclusion.

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