Bericht: Spiha

How much SPIHA were missed during the last years is a question whose answer becomes very clear on this autumnal saturday evening in "Friday".
Although singer Henry Lee Roots presented a kind of a follow-on project with 'Sonic Roots' almost right away after SPIHA's end and is very active with them, too, SPIHA are now suddenly back like phoenix from the ashes. Without any warnings, without any advertisements - but the bar at the main railway station of Helsinki was crowded! And it was even more crowded than it has been at the three Sonic Roots gigs I've visited so far...

Everything fit so well here: The apparently omnipresent SPIHA logo in the 60ies hippie style to the 60ies hippie style of the "Friday", the comfortable volume of the music before the gig which allowed the concert visitors to communicate without screaming into each other's ears... In short: It was just nice to be there. After the acoustic gig of a band whose name was unknown and hasn't been mentioned either, SPIHA were entering the stage - And it was getting louder!
The Finns opened their show with "Neversleep", taken from the second and so far last released album "Spiritual Hallucination". This beautiful melancholy song evoked nostalgic memories right away... Good to have you back, guys!
After being happy to have SPIHA back on stage, some fans had to smile in the second moment: Henry always had some optical similarities to his obvious role model, The 69 Eyes frontman Jyrki69, but his new hairstyle... It suits him very well, without any doubts, but you can't deny that his buddy Jyrki once had the same hairstyle, around summer 2002... But no matter how much he tried to look like their singer: The songs are fortunately quite independent from the Helsinki Vampires; SPIHA have their own sound. And this own sound was going to be presented in songs like "Egoreactor", "I Ain't The One", "Scratch", "Samurai Of The Sound" and, of course, "If I Ever Let You Go". But the one which really brought the house down was "Planet Horse".
Later on, Henry himself had to smile when he introduced the three (!!!) guitar players of his band to the audience because they were so many. Furthermore he was jumping on the timber which was in front of the stage and actually a table for beer, and the one or other shy fan left the first row when Henry started to come closer with his mic.
The SPIHA tattoo on his upper arm may leave no doubt how much this band means to him and whatever may be the reason that inhibits the success of SPIHA since years: We hope they will get over it. And whatever is the reason to delay their success: The problem is neither in the songs nor in the performance, that's for sure...

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