BY PATTY GONZALEZ | Go Venue Magazine
April 19th in the City Of Angels, The Belasco Theater was graced by Ville Valo and Kaelan Mikla.
Kælan Mikla was the opening act for Ville Valo. A trio of women from Iceland … ghostly conjure, their ethereal and haunting songs mixed in with some witchy dances made them a delight to listen to as they played their dark wave synth songs.
With the limited lighting these trios of women chose, you felt entranced as you watched singer Laufey Soffía interact with other members Sólveig Matthildur Kristjánsdóttir on keyboards and Margrét Rósa Dóru-Harrýsdóttir in bass.
A band worth checking out.
And now to the main act …
As Ville Valo’s Neon Noir Tour made its way to the city of Los Angeles; the minute the lights went dark, the neon heartgram logo lit up as did the crowd that had long awaited the arrival of the Finnish goth rocker.
Ville Valo made his way to the stage looking very sharp and opened up his second sold out LA gig with “Echolocate Your Love” as he quickly jumped into some older tunes from his former band, HIM, with “Poison girl”.
This seemed to set the theme for the night, and the crowd loved every minute of it as he played through his 18-song set list.
Against the purple, pink and blue and neon green hues of the lights behind Valo, his smile and happiness came from hearing how the crowd sang back to him word for word throughout the night.
This is the first time Ville Valo has sung songs from HIM since the last show in Helsinki in 2017!
Ville Valo‘s presence was seen and felt everywhere in the crowd, from the heartbreak tattoos, to the HIM, and VV shirts seen no matter where you turned.
Was this a memorable night, well I believe so!!
We all mourned Ville’s musical departure from HIM back in 2017, but let’s rejoice that he found his way back to music and is the fans who love him.
The return of Ville Valo was long overdue and like many fans we can’t wait to see what the future holds after a night full of nostalgia.
Ville Valo
Kælan Mikla
All images © Patty Gonzalez
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