Hurts

At the beginning of the year I witnessed Hurts playing a 1500 people venue. I was blown away and left wondering if I could ever imagine them playing on a stadium since they filled the space in a club so well. They left the city, kept touring and returned to the city nine months later to play the biggest show of the whole Happiness –tour and one of the biggest they’ve ever played. Over 7000 people were packed inside Helsinki Ice Hockey Arena as Hurts took the stage once again. This is it, and there’s no going back; they’re one of those success stories that truly deserve their place on the top.

The crowd made me proud; ever since the first band member stepped on stage the ocean of people turned into loud ocean of screams as they welcomed Hurts back to Finland. The band started the set with Silver Lining. To my recollection they could’ve begun with absolutely any song they wanted to because the crowd was going absolutely crazy. 

Did they fill the arena as well as the club nine months ago? Yes they did. Their diminutive gesturing made it even more powerful when they did do 'something more' like destroy the microphone stand by thrashing it against the stage until it split into two pieces. (This happened.)

And kudos to Hurts for bringing an actual orchestra with them instead of delivering their megalomaniac sounds through a playback track. Extra kudos for bringing dancers and sharing white roses to the crowd! Everything in Hurts’ performance was built around their music which is exactly how it should be. Even though Hurts had rather big stage props I didn’t notice it much since I was too busy getting emotional by the performance. 

Hurts’ debut album Happiness is their only one yet, which makes the set list easy to build but difficult to spice up. Luckily they’ve re-discovered some of their old songs that didn’t quite make it to the album and have included more of them to the set list than the last time I saw them. I even think I might have heard a completely new song in the set, but only time will tell if that song will make it on to the next album.

Hurts’ concert is something so magnificent it’s hard to grasp all of it. The orchestra is brilliant, the dancers are beautiful, Adam Anderson is amazing, Theo Hutchcrafts’ voice is haunting, the music is outstanding and the crowd made the evening plain perfect. As all the people in the hall light up their cell phones or lighters and sway them to the air during Illuminated, I feel like every cell of my body is about to cry of plain emotion.

The fact that Hurts has arisen to the mainstream attention so fiercely tells me that music listeners have gotten bored with the plastic sounds that master the pop industry today. They’re ready for something more, something challenging and something powerful. And ladies and gentlemen; Hurts is ready to deliver. 10/10

SETLIST

Intro

Silver Lining

Wonderful Life

Happiness

Blood, Tears & Gold

Evelyn

Sunday --- Off stage

Gloomy Sunday

Verona

Mother Nature

Unspoken

Devotion

The Water (Instr.) --- Quick change

Confide In Me

Affair

Illuminated

Stay --- Off stage

The Water

Better Than Love

Text: Joanna Tzortzis

Photography: Aikku Salonen