I want to live in fire

I felt compelled to write this after someone asked me in reply to this post how the Apocalyptica concert on the 31st May in Bucharest turned out. Then Mihai’s review through his music reminded me I wanted to write about the concert. And here is the tale from A to Z, the way I experienced it and maybe the way it was meant to be.

On arriving at the Arenele Romane at 19.34, 4 minutes after the concert was supposed to start, I learned an important lesson: NEVER arrive at a concert on time. It’s the same as with parties: the sooner you get there, the less fun you have. The opening of the concert was done by two Romanian bands of uncertain descent; the first one was Bucium I think, and as far as I remember played a sort of Phoenix-copycat music. The second sounded like Nightwish reloaded, with a wannabe Tarja shouting in a high-and-false-soprano-voice into the microphones that were configured for the four cellos. I prayed them out…

The concert itself left nothing to be desired (but to live in the fire they played… :-)). The Roman Arenas were well filled up by the time the Finns showed up, all dressed in leather and carrying their world-famous cellos. The intro was given by “Path” of course, an earlier melody from their Metallica reinterpretations, the ones which originally made the four classic music students famous. For the most part of the concert they played tracks from their newest album, “Amplified: a Decade of Reinventing the Cello.” The interesting part (especially for those who have not listened to more than The Cult and Inquisition albums) was the drums. What surprised us that night was the way a live rock concert with bass replaced by cello and accompanied by drums could tear our senses apart and put them back together like Apocalyptica did. I breathed in the energy as I let myself carried away on metallic tunes on classical instruments – excellently played and amazingly rock.

I want to live in fire

with all the taste I desire

it's all good if you let me dive

with some sharks on the ground

you lose your routine

you lose your routine

cause I found my path

(Apocalyptica, Path 2)