Story and Photographs by Pam Whisenhunt
After completing an extensive two-month European Tour, Swedish metal band Avatar brought its Dance Devil Dance Tour to the Admiral Theatre, in Omaha NE Friday, April 28th 2023. The show in Omaha began a 24-city US tour.
Orbit Culture, a melodic death metal band also hailing from Sweden kicked things off earlier than scheduled. This was their second time in the United States and already seemed to have a following. Although they had a short set, their energy lit up the room and took over the crowd.
Veil of Maya, who toured with Avatar during the European leg was the nights direct support. Veil of Maya a metalcore band from Chicago Illinois had a decent back catalog. They put on a performance with brutal intensity, screaming and thrashing but had a surprising number of clean vocals and melody. They had fairly large set of 12 songs, one of them “Red Fur” a live debut.
Avatar started their set with the tour title “Dance Devil Dance”. Drummer John Alfredsson was partially lit behind his drum kit, robotically moving and hitting the drums. As the anticipation built the band finally appeared, partially illuminated, standing like toy soldiers in what looked like doorways or photo booths all in a row. Johannes Eckerstom (lead vocals and ringmaster) marched onto the stage, sparkling fireworks lit up the sides of the doors and Jonas ‘Kungen’ Jarlsby (Guitar), Henrik Sandelin (Bass) and Tim Öhrström (Guitar) started flipping their hair in unison to the first verse of Dance Devil Dance. The metal circus had made it to Omaha.
Avatar performed a mix of old and new songs “The Eagle Has Landed”, “Valley Of Disease”, “Chimp Mosh Pit”, “Scream Until You Wake”, “Bloody Angel”, “For The Swarm”, “Puppet Show” and “When The Snow Lies Red”.
The show was filled with circus like shenanigans. At one point Johannes parted from the stage only to appear on the balcony. Lit by a large spotlight Johannes proceeded to create a balloon dog, kissed it and sent it into the audience below. After that, still on the balcony he pulled out a trombone and played it before finding his way back down to the stage.
A masked assistant brought a box wrapped with a bow onto the stage. Balloons floated out of the box and Johannes appeared with them. Johannas held the masked assistant’s hand, lead the assistant into a spin, bowed and the assistant left the stage. Johannes kept the balloons throughout the song “Black Waltz” before he set them free.
Avatar continued to impress us with their musicality. Johannes sat down at a keyboard for the song “Tower”. The crowd sang the last verse unaccompanied with the direction of Johannes, finishing with a boisterous “Welcome Home”!
SHOTS FROM THE SHOW – CHECK THEM OUT!
AVATAR
VEIL OF MAYA
ORBIT CULTURE
