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July 29, 2017 – Helsinki, Finland | Kaisafest

July 31, 2017

PhotoCreditPasiEriksson — Photo by Pasi Eriksson Photography - Metal Visual

At long last, Hollywood Undead finally returned to the stage for the first time in 2017. Rather than jump right into the touring cycle for their upcoming album, V, HU eased into the concert groove with a festival gig called “Kaisafest”. Kaisafest took place in Helsinki, Finland on July 29th, 2017. Hollywood Undead took to the stage with Finnish group Disco Ensemble as an opening act for the legendary Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The Kaisafest show was special for a couple reasons. Not only was it the first show of 2017, it also marks the band’s first performance since the official announcement of their fifth album just, which happened just five days before the show.
The performance also gave fans clues of what to expect in regards to the new masks for the upcoming North America Tour. Fans had struggled to reconcile the different color masks showing up in promotional materials, chalking it up to trick lighting, but when the band hit the stage in Helsinki the situation became more clear. The band performed the first handful of their songs in masks as is tradition, but this time they appeared in a set of matching, bright red versions of their new V masks. Funny Man’s red mask previously made an appearance in promotional materials, but this would be the fandom’s first look at red versions of the rest of the band’s masks.
Kaisafest also featured a new stage setup, mimicking the setup seen in the video for “California Dreaming”. With the departure of longtime member Da Kurlzz, the only drum-kit (operated by touring member Tyler Mahurin) now takes center stage. The absence of Da Kurlzz also changed up minor things in the band dynamic. For example, vocal portions of the song “Gravity” that used to be handled by Matt were now performed by Johnny 3 Tears.
Since the band was playing a festival show, the majority of the set-list consisted of singles and older, more well-known songs. This is a classic tactic used to make sure fans of the headliner may still be familiar with the music being played. The band maintained their opening set of songs seen on the last few tours for the Day of the Dead record cycle, and cherry picked singles from the remainder of their discography to fill out the set list. Notable omissions included the new single “California Dreaming”, which may have been too new to properly rehearse in time for the show, and absolutely anything from their third album, Notes from the Underground, which had no songs on the reported setlist. “Coming Back Down” did make an appearance for the first time in many months, and was rounded out with a trimmed down cover of “Du Hast” by Rammstein. The band closed their set with their traditional encore titles, “Everywhere I Go” and “Hear Me Now”.
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