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Hello , My Name is Ville
AN EATERY , BAR , PREMIER LIVE MUSIC VENUE , AND EVENT SPACE THU , APR 06
MAGIC HUNKS
SAT , APR 08
MIA ASANO
AND ALLY THE PIPER
FRI , APR 14
WESTERN BISEXUAL
WAX WING ONE MONROE MINIVAN WOONDS
FRI , APR 28
ADD DEATH POP RADIO
SAT , MAY 06
ROSE FUNERAL
FRI , APR 07
NU METAL MADNESS TOUR
( hed ) PE
CRAZYTOWN ADEMA TANTRIC
SUN , APR 09
DESTROYER OF LIGHT
SAT , APR 22
FEELS LIKE KARMA JUICE FALLS DOUBLE IDENTITY BLAKE RED SOUL YOU KNOW BLOOM NOWHERE DAYS
SAT , APR 29
OUTLINE IN COLOR
WED , MAY 10
MISFITS GUITARIST
DOYLE
T
Ville Valo
he last time Ville Valo performed at Chicago ’ s House of Blues he was reaching the end of a lengthy chapter in his life . HIM , the band he fronted for 25 years , was calling it quits . It was the last time they ’ d be on that stage together ; a stage Valo wasn ’ t sure he ’ d ever return to . Six years later , he ’ s preparing to return to the House of Blues to start the next chapter of his life . Valo is back with his debut solo album Neon Noir and ready to break melancholy hearts once again . Though he ’ s out on his own , it doesn ’ t mean he ’ s completely left HIM behind .
Before his big return to the House of Blues stage , Valo sat down with Illinois Entertainer to talk about the end of HIM , embarking on this new journey alone , and how HIM will always be a part of his life . Illinois Entertainer : We last sat down to chat back in 2013 for the release of TearsonTape . Obviously , a lot has changed since then with the disbanding of HIM and now your debut solo album . Ville Valo : Yeah , a lot of things have changed along the way . It ' s been ten years since then . I ' ve been positively surprised that people still remember HIM and the old me as well . It ' s not something you can take for granted , you know . There ' s a lot of new things people want to do . People want to listen to different sorts of stuff . I ' m quite shocked about the whole thing . We played the first shows in Helsinki just a few weeks ago , and they went really well . That was [ one of ] the biggest factors of stress because you can ' t really tell how it ’ s gonna be . It doesn ' t really matter if you rehearse or how many times you want to change the song order in the setlist . It becomes real after you ' ve done it . So , I ' m really happy the set went down great . The audience seemed to love it . I was zigzagging between the old and new . It ’ s not like new songs and then a bunch of HIM songs . It ' s 50 / 50 , back-to-back . It ' s weird times . Weird and exciting times all in all .
IE : What ’ s it been like performing those songs without the other HIM guys ? VV : I ' ve only done it a few times . It felt really weird . [ Tavastia ] where we performed was the club where HIM played their last gig . So , I ' m hopping on that same stage and singing some of the same songs with a fresh bunch . Then again there were actually a lot of familiar faces in the audience . [ Mikko Paananen ] Mige the bass player of HIM was in the audience . He was throwing the horns and really going for it . I think it was weird for a lot of my mates because they thought that it was HIM . They knew it wasn ’ t , but it was hard for them to separate or realize it was a new thing . It ' s quite endearing . It ' s not a negative at all . A lot of weird emotions and the fact that I haven ' t done any harder-hitting stuff in English since HIM disbanded . It was kind of like riding a bike , but I think I rode my bikes before electrical ones were invented ( laughs ).
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THU , MAY 11
ICON FOR HIRE
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SAT , MAY 13
Performing NINJA GAIDEN and DOUBLE DRAGON BIT BRIGADE
PSYCHOSTICK
IE : That ’ s so cool of Mige to show his support . Have you been in touch with the other HIM guys ? VV : Mige is the only guy I ' ve been in touch with . We were friends before HIM . We met in school when we were about eight years old . We ' ve been talking to each other , and he was sort of a guru producer for the album as well . Every three or four months he ’ d come over to my place to check that I hadn ’ t completely lost it . We ’ d listen to some music and talk about life in general as you do with good friends . But the rest of the guys , no . I think we saw each other enough , so we needed a bit of a breather . It was an intense 25 years . [ Guitarist Mikko Lindström ] Linde is playing in a band of Samm Yaffa ’ s , a guy that played with Hanoi Rocks – they do this sort of punky thing . And [ keyboardist Janne Puurtinen ] Burton is playing with them too . [ Jukka " Kosmo " Kröger ], the last drummer who played with HIM for about three years , has several projects . He ' s a great drummer .
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