From: HEGE@finabo.abo.fi (Kaj H{ggman DC)
Subject: Extreme Thunder!
Organization: Abo Akademi University, Finland
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 12:29:01 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.23

I'm still delirious.

Last night (Nov 18) me and a friend of mine headed for Helsinki, a 2-hour ride 
from my hometown. Listened to Extreme in the car and heard "Running With The 
Devil" (by VH, if someone doesn't know) on the radio and got an Xtra kick out
of that.

We arrived a little before 8 pm, didn't have to queue a lot to get in to the
Icehall, wandered around for a while (quite a few nice objects to watch) and 
bought ourselves a t-shirt. Quite nice with cover of "Three Sides" on the 
front, and the the names of the cities of this tour on the back.

"Special Guest Star" was Thunder. Unfortunately I don't know their record,
I've just heard a couple of their songs. Their set started with a playback
of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" (the whole song, actually). Correct me if I'm 
wrong, but they played at least "Everybody Wants Her" and "Love Life In High 
Places". 'nough of that. 
To make it short - they surprised me a lot. What a great band on stage! If you 
like(d) Bad Company, mix it with something a little Coverdaleish, some great 
riffs, a very good sound - and you've got Thunder! I used to be a big fan
of Paul Rodgers (especially during his Free area), and this singer must've
listened to him a lot. A great voice, and he knows how to use it.
I don't know if they'll ever be really big, I guess they'll need a few more 
hits for that, but the double Les Paul rhytm sure beats the hell out of me!
The band played for a little less than an hour.

After that it was time for some wandering around again while they changed
the stuff on stage. About 45 minutes later the lights where turned down.

The concert started with the intro to "Warhead" with this Sgt/father and son 
speaking with each other, airacrafts, alarms and helicopters. There was some
sort of screen in front of the stage, that fell when the guys started playing.

Aggressive and excellent sound from the first song! And you could here Nuno
playing all those riffs & things all the time - great! Me smile was already
dividing my head in two and this was just the first song. Should've been
wearing a helmet, since I found the upper half of my head on the floor a 
couple of hours later.

"When I'm President" slowed it down to serious headbanging :-) that was
followed by "It ('s A Monster)" and the audience was really getting into it.

Surprisingly the next song was "Rest In Peace". I had expected it to be an 
encore. It sounded even better than on the record, the riffs where more 
aggressive, the singing in harmonies was great and the beat was just pounding 
on. Great sound on the base drum, BTW, both the deep bass and a higher tone 
that cut through.

"Our Father" was followed by a short version of "Peacemaker Die" (oh, that 
great part with Nuno playing the notes palm muted) and lot of jamming by the 
group. Very funky stuff and people where dancing around.

Nuno showed his talents on the acoustic by playing these very fast things
accompanied by a drum machine. He puts some very rhytmic chords that I'd
like to call "indian" (well, not Ravi Shankar) and then continues with
these fast notes. It swings like hell!
Well, as expected the acoustic solo was followed by "More Than Words", a tune
that has been played too much, but it's nice when everybody sings along and
swings those lighters in the air. Gary did very well and there where some 
extra harmonies and backbeats every now & then.

Something heavier was expected and that was "Stop The World". I don't know why,
but it wasn't that impressive live, somewhat too sweet and nice, maybe. Gary
was singing a little different from the record, too. The song ended in lots
of smoke, lights and some "space music".

I somehow missed where "part II" of the concert started, but "part III" began
by "Hole Harted". AND. All of you who have listened to Extreme just because
of their heavy and aggressive stuff - beware: 2 guys on trumpet and 2 guys
on sax joined the band. There was something of Tower of Power in it, the song 
was funked up a lot. Great! 

"Teacher's Pet" was the only song from their 1st album (I believe) and, well,
not a bad song. I don't own their 1st album (yet :-) 
After this it was time for Nuno again (he was *impressing* all through the 
night), this time on the electric for some very rhytmic "soloing", including 
just whacking the low E with the left hand fingers and other things. Not just 
speeding up and down the fret at 1000 Mph. Well, he did a little of that too, 
by playing "Flight Of The Bumble Bee", that turned out to something a little 
symphonic with lots of echo and long tones. 
Yes, I am VERY impressed by Nuno. But I'm sure nobody's noticed.

"Cupid's Dead" was again a tune made a lot funkyer and the horns made quite
a difference, too. Nuno played some sort of timbales together with Paul 
Geary (who played a short drum solo) and everybody was just jamming. One of 
the guys on trumpet (also called Gary) "sang" together with Cherone, first 
with the audience and then just the 2 Gary's together. 
Oh, yeah, Paul Geary's drum kit is ridicolously small, but he sure knows how 
to use it! Well, Patrick Badger sure knows ho to play the bass, too.

After this it was time for some "Thank you, goodnight Helsinki", but I doubt
you will here that when you go to see them.

Nuno came in, sat down at the piano and started "Seven Sundays", a "come on
everybody sing" song. I think they made this one very slow and sweet on 
purpose, just so that 
			"Decadence Dance" 

should sound wilder. And it was wild, not just Nuno who seemed to be playing 
everything everywhere, filling in the empty spots with riffs, or making the 
beat by playing nothing to point out the rhytm. Impressive!

And then it was definitely over. My hands where sore and my voice (what voice?)
was gone. Overall, the sound was very good, like the balance. Many of the songs
sounded different from the record, there where some small changes and 
surprises every now & then. Very enjoyable. Allthough it seemed like they'd 
lost some of their aggressivity at one time of the concert, they made that up 
by being more funkish, and the songs from Pornograffitti still sounded wild. 
The set was a little less than 2 and a half hours.

BTW, here's the cities included in the European Tour (straight from the back 
of my t-shirt that I'm waring - oh shit, there goes my neck :-) Unfortunately 
I don't have the dates (if someone's interested) and I don't know nothing 
about a US tour, either. 

Lisbon
Madrid
Barcelona
Paris
Bern
Stuttgart
Berlin
Copenhagen
Helsinki	Nov 18, 1992
Stockholm
Gothenburg
Rotterdam
Brussels
Essen
Hannover
Offenbach
Milan
Munich
Wurzburg
Dublin
Belfast
Glasgow
Whitley Bay
Birmingham
Sheffield
Manchester
Cardiff
Bournemouth
London

If you've ever liked any song of Thunder of Extreme - don't miss them live!

-=HeGe=-

Kaj Haggman             Internet: Hege@abo.fi     Phone:   +358-21-654467
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