(Photography by James Chen)
Avatar returns to the U.S. to kick off the “Don’t Go In The Forest” tour on the West Coast. This was the second stop of the tour, and it was a high energy night of metal spectacle at The Novo in Downtown Los Angeles on Friday, April 17th. This tour has Avatar bringing their theatrical Swedish metal from coast to coast, with festival appearances at Welcome to Rockville and Sonic Temple.
The set opens with “Captain Goat”, and as the performance began, the stage falls into darkness and unmoving cloaked figures appear from the rear of the stage and appear to float and glide toward the audience, with the front-most figure holding a lantern. The song feels like a low tempo sea shanty following a relentless, rhythmic drive which mimics the steady, mechanical motion of a boat being rowed.
The figures eventually remove their cloaks and reveal themselves to be the members of Avatar, after all. Avatar are based in Sweden and consist of John Alfredsson on drums, Jonas “Kungen” Jarlsby on guitar, Johannes Eckerström on vocals, Henrik Sandelin on bass, and Tim Öhrström also on guitar.
The band proceeds with “Silence in the Age of Apes” and “The Eagle Has Landed”, cranking up the tempo with intense windmill headbanging before changing gears into a lower tempo. Avatar always seem willing to change things up and try different things, and at this show I was surprised to see a different (new?) piece of equipment on the stage: mic stands that appeared to be spring loaded.
During “regular operation” the mic stands used by Henrik and Tim seem to be just vertical posts that go stand straight up and have a microphone at their top, but before starting a segment of windmill headbanging, the mic stand can be kicked/toggled so that the post pivots at its base sideways 90 degrees to provide an unobstructed view of the spectacle to the fans. Toggling a lever near its base brings the post back upright with microphone ready to be sung into.
Frontman Johannes is obviously a talented vocalist with incredible stage presence, but I am again delighted to see and hear how purely charismatic and funny he is. In between the songs, Johannes’ banter was very entertaining and demonstrated his sharp wit, all the while enabling him to emanate an extremely friendly energy when not in the maniacal ringmaster / clown persona. Johannes tells the crowd how amazing it is to be in the “world famous” Los Angeles as someone from the not-so-famous Sweden who had learned about L.A. in school, which earns laughter and cheers from the crowd, proud of the city. Johannes mentions that when outside of “world famous” Los Angeles, he typically feels like a decently good-looking “youngish” man, but being in “world famous” Los Angeles… he’s maybe “a six” at best - this draws more laughter from the crowd, as well as disagreement.
As the set continues on, red lights flood onto the stage and onto the audience, and a the chirp of a alarm or siren -like sound rings out signalling the beginning of “Colossus”. The song is centered around a dark irony, that in our quest to build something great and powerful, we have effectively constructed our own cage, trading our primal nature for a cold, industrial existence. This theme is expressed through a mid-tempo, crushing groove that leans heavily into Industrial Metal. It starts with a low, ominous electronic hum before launching into a repetitive, chugging riff that mimics the steady, unstoppable movement of a massive machine.
Johannes eventually dons what he calls his “piano jacket”, a black leather jacket with many studs, to sit at the piano that has been brought onto the stage. Before getting to the keys, he lets the crowd know that he is having a great time and thanks them. Johannes informs the crowd that it is the second show of the tour, which is the actual big deal. He laments that most people place too much emphasis about the first show of a tour, but actually
the second show is always the first show where we don’t suck … and tonight most certainly it doesn’t suck!
The crowd erupts in laughter and cheers, and Johannes thanks them once again.
At the piano, Johannes declares
Oh… it’s good to sit down … as a matter of fact, today’s extra good to sit down
and the audience responds with more laughs. Johannes explains that he “does [his] own stunts” and so in preparing for the tour, he spent more time in the gym to be able to give the best version of himself to fans during the live performances. However, just a week prior, he dropped a 15 kilogram (33lbs) plate on his foot, earning him two fractures as well as many sympathetic “ooohs” from the crowd on this night.
Johannes continues on:
I don’t know what you’re doing to me, but if this is what it means to be “California sober”, but I feel no pain at all
to which the crowd responds with more laughter and cheering, all while applauding energetically. Johannes mentions that it would be remiss to not mention how his foot was receiving treatment before getting to California:
shout out to free European healthcare!
to which the crowd again responds with laughter and applause, which causes Johannes to say “Yeah, I don’t know what you guys are doing… you should all be pissed off all the time” and shouts of agreement along with cheers erupt from the audience.
Don’t look at me! Get organized - I’m rooting for ya!
“Howling at the Waves” is then performed for the audience with Johannes on the piano. It is a deeply sentimental song about resilience and the pain of holding onto a memory while the world falls apart. It tells the story of a couple standing on a beach in the rain, choosing to cherish a final, perfect moment together even as they face the inevitable end.
The track stands out as a haunting, cinematic ballad that trades heavy riffs for a melancholy piano melody played by Johannes. It starts with a quiet, intimate atmosphere and slowly builds into a powerful anthem, using soaring vocals to convey the imagery of crashing waves and wind. The other members of the band have reappeared on stage as the song progresses, to build up the sound into an emotional crest.
The background set for the stage changes subtly and Jonas “Kungen” Jarlsby appears on stage seated upon a throne as banners depicting Jonas are lowered from the rafters. Jonas is dressed like a king (the “Kungen” of Jonas “Kungen” Jarlsby is the Swedish word for “the king”, by the way) and this spectacle is a thematic reference to the Avatar’s 2018 album, “Avatar Country”.
“Avatar Country” was a humorous album framed as a national anthem for the fictional land of Avatar Country where The King (Jonas) reigns - he does not speak, he only shreds. With enthroned Jonas donning his impressive regalia, the band performs “Legend of the King” and “Let It Burn”.
Johannes demonstrates his talents as an orator as well as his graciousness, when he again expresses his appreciation to the audience. He explains that the band is “stupid” enough that they would probably stick together and put on shows even when nobody cared or showed up, and he emphasized that this was how it went for many years - nobody cared and nobody showed up. Johannes continues on about how much they simply love playing the music:
But we kept showing up because it was awesome! We are stupid enough to have kept going [on that way] for the rest of our lives… But to be perfectly honest, to ourselves and to you, it is WAY more fun when you are here!
The crowd erupts in cheers and applause.
So, thank you for bringing so much meaning to what we do by having it mean something to you. Thank you.
The crowd cheers and applauds so very enthusiastically.
