Detroit Plays Host to the 69 Eyes

Friday night Goth rockers The 69 Eyes or as they like to be known, the Helsinki Vampires rolled into the Motorcity for a stop at the I-Rock Nightclub.

The evening began with a meet and greet before the show for VIP ticket holders. The band has been doing the meet and greets throughout their U.S. tour as a way to show their appreciation to their fans.

The 69 Eyes members were more than happy to spend time taking pictures, signing autographs and chatting with their biggest fans.

I got a chance to spend some time with singer Jyrki69 who I interviewed last week. We were able to pick up our conversation about the Detroit music scene and it's influence on the band and the fact that the longer the tour goes on, the more fun he is having.

After the meet and greet, the band retreated to their bus but the members of the opening bands The Becoming and Dommin spent the night hanging out with fans and taking pictures near the merchandise booths. Becoming guitarist Dustinn Lowry was particularly outgoing and available to the fans.

The Becoming are a rock group from Nashville, Tennessee, who play music with a dark feel to it and a nice mix of guitar and keyboard sounds.

The up and coming band was pretty impressive Friday night performing a number of standout songs including I Cry and Silent As The Grave.

Dommin, the other opener hailing from Los Angeles, California, are another dark rock band and they got the crowd pumped up with singles like opener My Heart Your Hands and Without End.

The band also pulled out a great cover version of Depeche Mode's People Are People.

The I-Rock isn't a huge venue so there wasn't a huge crowd but by the time the 69 Eyes took the stage to the strains of Cry Little Sister from the cult classic vampire film Lost Boys the place had filled in and the crowd was pretty loud.

The 69 Eyes set list was a nice mix of old and new music. It was nice to see that the crowd was just as pumped to hear the new songs from their latest album Back In Blood as they were to hear the classics and they were singing along to all of them.

Drummer Jussi69 had the crowd fired up and Jyrki69 was all over the stage swinging his hips in his favorite Elvis inspired poses.

The band opened with the title track off of their new cd and then went right in to one of my favorites Never Say Die.

Set highlights were new songs Hunger and Dead Girls Are Easy and fan favorites Feel Berlin, Perfect Skin and closer Devils.

The band returned to the stage for a encore of Brandon Lee (which Jyrki69 dedicated to Detroit rockers) and Lost Boys.

The 69 Eyes are on tour in the U.S. through November 5 so catch them while you can.

69 Eyes setlist:

1. Back In Blood
2. Never Say Die
3. Lips Of Blood
4. Gothic Girl
5. Susperia Snow White
6. Dance D'Amour
7. Kiss Me Undead
8. Feel Berlin
9. Hunger
10. Betty Blue
11. The Good, the Bad, and The Undead
12. Perfect Skin
13. Dead Girls Are Easy
14. Devils
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15. Brandon Lee
16. Lost Boys