Last year, AVATAR released their brand new record “Avatar Country”. The Swedish band around frontman Johannes Eckerström is one of the most extraordinary bands of our time. You might not know their music, but, for sure, you know their look!

With their unique show and appearance, AVATAR brings the audience into another world.

AVATAR’s shows are very special because they transport the audience to another world. It’s not a secret that men who wear a lot of make-up usually seem more attractive. So it was no wonder that the concertgoers came early to the venue in Bochum to get the good places in the front row.

For sure, AVATAR didn’t come to Bochum alone. With them on tour was the Irish singer-songwriter DYLAN WALSHE and THE MAHONES from Canada.

DYLAN WALSHE opened the evening with his amazing voice.

One thing was for sure on this evening: sometimes you don’t need a lot of equipment for impressing the audience. DYLAN WALSHE came on stage only with his guitar and a harmonica and left the crowd speechless. It was a short set but the audience, which was there for some Metal, still gave him a lot of love and applause. For the AVATAR fans, he was probably unknown, but DYLAN WALSHE has toured with FLOGGING MOLLY in the past and has been raising more and more international attention to his music.

The Audience loved his set even if it was totally different from the music AVATAR plays. There was not much action on stage but it wasn’t really necessary because his voice was so strong that any action on stage would fade because the crowd wouldn’t give it much attention. The crowd would just listen to his beautiful voice. It was a nice start into this evening especially since it wasn’t announced that there would be an opener for AVATAR.

THE MAHONES made the audience sweat with their Folk-Punk.

After the first surprise opener followed the second: another supporting act before AVATAR hit the stage. But now it’s something completely different. THE MAHONES played some kind of Folk Punk music. Music for having fun, dancing and going crazy. And this is what happened during their show, except the dancing, because there was so space for dancing. There was an absolutely great mood during THE MAHONES’s gig.

This band is definitely a lot of fun, and even if it’s not your preferred music, you still start clapping your hands and liking it because the music catches you, wether you want it or not.

The highlight of the show was, for sure, when a tom-tom was brought to the first row and the drummer showed us what he can do. After that, it was a gift for the girl, who had held it – and was covered with signatures! Truly a special gift from the band!

This powerful show was over too fast. Sure, AVATAR was still in line but the audience celebrated THE MAHONES a lot and I was a bit sad that it was over.

You can call AVATAR’s music average, but their shows are always extraordinary.

Finally, the waiting was over and AVATAR hit the stage! It was the first of four gigs in Germany during this world tour and the Matrix in Bochum was pretty full. The crowd went crazy when the band appeared on stage. But during the show, we all got to know that this craziness could be topped. It’s hard to describe what happened on stage without spoiling it for people, who haven’t seen it yet. Sure, we all know the crazy photos from the band’s shows. But the pictures can’t show how crazy and unique an AVATAR show really is.

They worked with props on stage making everything even more pompous. AVATAR is not only about music, AVATAR is about music and also about their stage performance. You can call the music average, but the shows are extraordinary.

AVATAR Frontman Johannes Eckerström welcomed the crowd in almost perfect German.

After the second song, Johannes Eckerström welcomed the crowd speaking almost perfect German, which was a big surprise because at least I didn’t know about his knowledge of the German language. When you go to a foreign band’s concert you don’t expect them to speak to you in German. Sure, there were tiny mistakes in his speech but he was so self-confident that only native speakers heard it.

You could say: “Yeah, it’s not hard to google two sentences” but if you have ever attended an AVATAR show before, you know that if Johannes speaks, he speaks a lot! Later this evening he told the audience that his mother comes from the Ruhr area and that this is the reason why he speaks German so well. ,

AVATAR band members were so into their roles, they never lost their posture.

Also amazing to see that Johannes was so extremely caught in his role during the whole show. There was no single moment where he lost his expression or his posture. The whole time he was AVATAR. That was pretty amazing to watch and very impressive. The whole band was into their roles during the whole show. It would be nice to know how hard they practiced this to get to perfect!

The light show supported this even more. On this show, the Matrix could show everybody that this small club has one of the best lighting in the area! There was light everywhere and the way it was used, everything on stage looked even crazier. Especially the faces of AVATAR.

In the middle of the show, AVATAR-fans started crowd surfing.

In the middle of the show, the crowd went crazy and started crowd surfing. Also, you could see a lot of head banging in the first rows. This is how a great show must run! The security had its hands full! They probably underrated the fans and the show! The Matrix got hotter and hotter. And the mood in the venue got better and better. I don’t want to go too much into detail, because I think you shouldn’t read about AVATAR shows, you should attend them.

During one of Johannes’ speeches, he told us that some people call it “Freak show”. That’s probably the first thing what gets into your mind when you watch the show. But what the word “freak show” is so negatively charged. People shouldn’t use this word for describing people or the behaviour of people. Yes, AVATAR looks different in comparison to other bands and yes their show is different, but a freak show? No. It’s more a crazy show with crazy looking people on stage, with crazy fans in the crowd in a positive way. Their show is entertainment on a high level of art and exactly this was the show in Bochum.

The crowd wanted an encore but AVATAR never plays encores.

When the show came to an end the crowd started chanting for an encore. Until AVATAR-frontman Johannes said that AVATAR never plays encores because for an encore they first have to leave the stage, which they never do. Nevertheless, the mood was still amazing until the end. They played two more songs and left the stage.

Altogether an amazing evening with a high level of entertainment. When you take a look at the 17-song-setlist, it might not seem much but the whole AVATAR-show lasted about two hours and it felt like more than 17 songs. Most of the songs were from the new album “Avatar Country” and the crowd loved it.

The evening with the two supports and AVATAR was amazing and I’m sure they will soon fill the stadiums of Germany. I highly recommend everyone to attend an AVATAR show! You won’t go home disappointed.

If you want to see all the concert photos, please visit my Flickr.

Have you seen AVATAR on this tour or in the past? Or will you attend a show on this tour? Tell us in the comments!