Apr 10 2008

Update: Apocalyptica HotTopic concert

Published by Megan under News

It’s still another half hour to the concert but I just noticed that you can see them underneath the announcement! I’m fairly certain that what I am seeing is the guys getting set up for the concert and doing the sound check. Perttu just got up and walked offstage and looks like Paavo and Eicca are still checking out their instruments.

Fun! I wonder if they know that they’re being broadcast already even if hidden behind a semi transparent ad thing.

EDIT 1:40pm: They just turned on the sound. Can hear them talking now. Someone’s singing the lines from Life Burns! Can’t make out who though.
1:42pm the video and audio just went away, it’s now only the announcement graphic that I posted in the reminder earlier today.
EDIT: 1:56pm It’s starting… announcement is gone and we can see the empty stage now. Hope you’re all watching this too! BTW this is PC only, sorry for those on a Mac
Edit: 2:02pm They’re playing Bittersweet now. I didn’t catch if they said who the fourth cellist is but as far as I know there’s still only officially 3 in the band. Perttu has an interesting get up on. He’s wearing a stovepipe top hat, long black coat and has dyed his hair all black. Paavo has a really nice smile, he looked up and was grinning at the other guys at one point.
Unfortunately the mike is so low that I can’t make out what Eicca’s been saying in between the songs.
I realize now that I’ve never heard Bittersweet done without the vocals from Ville & Lauri, it’s really nice!
2:07pm Darn it, I got distracted and missed Eicca introducing the guy who’s singing the next song, I’m Not Jesus. I don’t know what Corey Taylor looks like so don’t know if this guy is him. He is the one who was singing Life Burns in the sound check earlier. But I did see Mikko getting on stage. He reminds me of a drummer friend who can never stop grinning when he’s playing because he’s just happy to be performing.
That’s it? Only three songs? Apparently so.
Ok here for those who missed this: “Missed the show? No worries. We’ll be showin’ it again on Tuesday April 15th at 6pm PDT.”
The one thing I did make out from Eicca is that the first single from their new album will be out next week. (Hope I got that right!)
Final EDIT: Ah ok, they’re releasing Worlds Collide in the US next week. Worlds Collide was released last year in Europe but Zomba Label is doing a US release. I wish they’d sign The Rasmus as well since TR parted ways with their US label who failed to marshal a cohesive promotion campaign. Zomba’s doing very well by Apocalyptica. Looking up Apocalyptica on YouTube brought this ad in the advertising section:

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Apr 10 2008

Don’t forget… Apocalyptica online concert today!

Published by Megan under News

It starts in about 90 minutes and if you can’t find it on the Hot Topic website, here’s the link from the email I got:
http://community.hottopic.com/videos/Apocalyptica.asp

(Thanks to Karen for reminding to post the actual link)

I’ll be watching!

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Apr 08 2008

Apocalyptica & Children of Bodom meets Hot Topic

Published by Megan under News

This past week, I was pleased to get several emails from Hot Topic about bands …. from Finland! Given that just about anyone who loves rock music has at some point stepped foot in a Hot Topic, it’s a good milestone to mark any band’s attempt to get a foothold in the US.

HIM has conquered the Hot Topic frontier thoroughly. You can walk in at any point and find the Heartagram all over the store.

I’ve noticed Children of Bodom merch in there before but usually just a t-shirt or two. So getting an email about the upcoming release of their new album is noteworthy because it signals another step into mainstream promotion via Hot Topic.

If you’re a Children of Bodom fan and have not yet ordered their new album: Blooddrunk, I highly recommend ordering it through Hot Topic. $9.99 is a great price and you’ll be voting with your consumer dollar to show Hot Topic that CoB does have a US fanbase and that it’s worthwhile to carry more merchandise.

And today’s email brought an announcement of an online Apocalyptica concert via Hot Topic! If you haven’t been paying attention, Apocalyptica is touching down this week for their first US tour starting on Friday. But according to the email, they’re starting a day early with a streaming concert exclusive to Hot Topic’s website.

Exciting isn’t it? I know they played a gig at the Roxy several years ago but that was before I learned about the wonders of rock music from the far north. I am really looking forward to seeing them at the Roxy this time around because it’s an intimate club where you can get a front row view of the band from anywhere inside the club.

Even when I went to the SOLD OUT Tokio Hotel concert back in February, we had no trouble finding a great spot even though we were one of the last ones in the club.

BTW LA denizens, keep your peepers open since the guys will probably be hanging out on Sunset Strip this week. Hot Topic’s headquarters are in the LA metropolitan area so it’s a good guess that they’ll be coming to LA first to do the concert before popping over to Vegas for the first gig of the tour. I know they like the strip because we ran into them several times last year. They were there filming the music video for I’m Not Jesus with Corey Taylor. Just look for a 6 ft Finn with long blonde hair gliding through the throngs.

I want to wrap up this post by applauding the Apocalyptica PR team for the excellent promotional photos they’ve picked. Paavo usually isn’t the focus of the artwork but it really works to have him front and center and the long haired ones flanking him and the mischievous Mikko peeking out of the background like Puck.

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