Despite a career spanning 8 albums, and being able to sell out venues 3 times this size in their native Finland, the 69 Eyes are yet to have an official CD release in the UK. This handful of shows in support of ex-Murderdoll Wednesday 13 are the bands first on these shores in their current incarnation (their previous one being a tight pants and perms sleaze-rock band) and thus the band seem particularly eager to impress this evening, even though their sound akin to the likes of SENTENCED is unlikely to be to the taste of much of the crowd.

Singer Jyrki bounds onto the stage sporting a skeleton jacket and sunglasses to the shout-a-long Devils, from their most recent album. Bazie and Archzie, on guitar and bass repsectively, both contribute backing vocals, though the spotlight remains on the frontman. Jyrki's crooning voice is ridiculously deep, like that of Type O's Pete Steele, but his performance is neither plodding nor melancholy, as you may expect from this analogy; he balances precariously on the monitors, leans into the front row and climbs up the lighting rig. And despite the fact that few of the Frankenstein Drag Queen-cult in presence at the Academy probably have a clue who these 5 Scandavian Goths are, Jyrki interacts with the audience as if they were his own, dedicating Gothic Girl to... well you can guess. The crowd screams along wildly to this particular number, the band themselves looking taken aback and rather chuffed at the response. One puzzling factor about their live performance is that all their songs have chunky layers of keyboard, but they have no keyboard player! For some songs they have opted to play the melody on guitar, which sounds fine enough, but for the rest there is a keyboard sound of mysterious origin. Whether they have an extra member behind the scenes, or use mini disc technology, it seems a little strange that for a band whose sounds relies heavily on keyboards, they have not found the need for a player as it takes away a certain element of the live setting.

Drummer Jussi is shirtless before the set even begins, and despite a pint-sized kit for the tour, he has a big stage presence - occasionally standing up to play and pulling a face like a slapped arse as he angrily pounds the cymbals; he even snatches the mic to caw during 'The Crow'-insired Brandon Lee. Don't Turn Your Back On Fear seems like an unusual choice for what should be concise showcase of a set, but lines such as "Am I not scary enough for you?" perfectly sum up the Eyes' brand of self-mocking goth'n'roll; it's dirty, dark but fun. Set closer, the Lost Boys, is the highlight, with the sing along chorus of "You wanna rock?" getting everyone dancing. A personal qualm would be with the choice of songs in the set; with 50% of the set coming from just 1 album; 'Blessed Be' from back in 2001, however more variety could be expected from a larger time slot. The 69 Eyes clearly have a lot more to offer than they were able to display tonight, and this short performance certainly left a lot of the audience pining for more, even if only a proper CD release for the time being!

Setlist:
Devils
Don't turn your back on Fear
Betty Blue
Gothic Girl
Feel Berlin
Framed in Blood
The Chair
Brandon Lee
Lost Boys

Overall Score:   7 /10