Lord Of The Lost / Beasto Blanco

Lord Of The Lost and Beasto Blanco Raining Stars In Cleveland, Ohio

**Lord of the Lost – House of Blues, Cleveland, Ohio**

Germany’s Lord Of The Lost announced an 11 date run of North American and shows quickly began selling out. Cleveland’s House of Blues was lucky enough to make the stretch. The band was joined by Beasto Blanco on the second half the dates, starting that Friday night in Ohio.

***Beasto Blanco – House of Blues, Cleveland, Ohi***o

It was a perfect summer evening in Cleveland’s downtown core for a concert and the crowd that extended down the street waiting for the doors to open at House of Blues proved so. Once you got into the venue the line began for the merch booth, seemingly as long as the line to get in, band merchandise was a hot commodity.

Beasto Blanco took the stage and much of the crowd wasn’t sure what to expect at first, as they looked on in wonder. Frontwoman, Calico Cooper showcased her inherited stage presence and commanded the audience’s attention. Around the middle of their unique and theatrical set, they had the converted most of the crowd into fans versus spectators with the cover of Alice Cooper’s Feed My Frankenstein. Their set was shorter than I would have liked and focused on their latest release, Kinetica.

Lead vocalist and guitarist Chuck Garric, known for his work with Alice Cooper, joins Calico as does, Lee Valak on bass, drummer Trent Tieken and filling in for guitarist Chris Latham on this tour is Bryan Blumer. Garric has a grit in his vocal styling that is reminiscent of the great, Lemmy Kilmiester, right down to his microphone position. The chemistry between Garric and Cooper helps the band deliver a potent performance and I would love to see them come back through with a longer set time. Personally, I wish they had performed the song Unreal, a single they dropped a few weeks ago, featuring Lord Of The Lost’s Chris Harms.

Finally it was time for Lord Of The Lost, the band fans traveled far and wide to see. It had been over a decade since the goth-industrial German band had been to North America. It is hard to narrow down their exact sound and style, vocalist and founding member Chris Harms, even made mention of the ever evolving state of their albums over their 15+ years. Their catalog is hefty, their most recent release Weapons of Mass Seduction, released nearly 10months ago, is a cover album stuffed with covers of all genres.

On stage with Harms, is Pi Stoffers on guitar, Class Grenayde on bass, Benjamin Mundigler on guitar and keys, Gared Dirge on keys and percussion and Niklas Kahl on drums, helping to cultivate the distinctive sound that is Lord Of The Lost.

Harms, sporting a glittery sequined jacket, at the beginning of the show, danced around as much as he headbanged through the set. Despite it being the first time many in attendance had ever seen them, the crowd was rabid with enthusiasm and knew every word to every song the band pulled out, including their cover of Sia’s Unstoppable. At one point Stoffers, jumped into the crowd with his guitar and played in the middle of the crowd. No matter where your attention wandered during their set, every member appeared to be enjoying themselves. There was enormous amounts of energy both on the stage as well as off the stage and it made for a great night out.

The highlight for me personally was a Billy Idol cover. While most bands cover the punk icon, typically the go-to is Rebel Yell or Dancing With Myself, however the crowd was treated to a flawless rendition of Shock To The System. It seemed as though no-one wanted the evening to come to an end. Harms had informed the crowd that sadly that was about to happen, but without an encore. He explained as a band they do not like to play the age old game of hide and seek, making the crowd beg for more. That they would rather just play straight through to the end, and inform the crowd when the last song was about to play. He joked that if you were hoping to leave early, like many do just before the encore to avoid traffic, too bad. The show ended on a perfect note, as the band performed One Last Song.

The entire band then thanked the crowd for attending as they danced around to a Lord Of The Lost twist on the Village People’s Y.M.C.A. playing over the house PA system. Overall, it was a spectacular performance and suggest everyone check them out, even if you have to travel, they are worth every mile. Here’s to hoping the great reception they received on this tour means we won’t have to wait another 10 years.