Harem Scarem
- Rock Metal Machine
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Artists: Harem Scarem, Cassidy Paris, Seventh Crystal
Venue: London: The Underworld
Date: 28 April 2025
"I had a blast tonight and hope it will be a shorter wait until I get chance to see them again. If you have not succumbed to this awesome Canadian group, I urge you to check them out and maybe you’ll be there next time they deliver another amazing show..."
The Frontiers Rock Festival in Italy provided a nice opportunity for Canada’s Harem Scarem to take a quick flight across Europe for a headline show in London (amongst a handful of others that followed). In addition, the Saturday and Sunday festival openers – Seventh Crystal and Cassidy Paris – made up the rest of the triple bill.
I’ve been a huge fan of Harem Scarem since the early days. An old friend got me into them in the mid-nineties via some compilation tapes he made, and I picked up the third album ‘Voice Of Reason’ at the time. A couple of years later, I took a trip to Vancouver and enthusiastically bagged the now-essential self-titled debut and colossal ‘Mood Swings’. To this day, the debut will always remind me of that trip and I remained a fan ever since, being especially excited when the returned in 2002 with ‘Weight Of The World’. I’d seen them at Firefest and also at another headline show, but it had been a while so I jumped at the chance to saunter up to London for a night of top-drawer Melodic Hard Rock.
I’d feared the worst early on as took in a pint at The World’s End because the queue looked rather short, but it had grown by the time the doors opened. The Underworld is a good venue that I have been to countless times, but it’s one that can affect a gig by being too empty or worst still, too full. There was a reasonable crowd as Seventh Crystal came out on stage, although I noted to a friend that it was “getting a bit on the toasty side”. More on that later!
For those unfamiliar, Seventh Crystal are a five-piece Melodic Hard Rock band from Gothenburg. Once they took their places there was no mucking about and they hit the ground running with the catchy ‘Blinded By The Light’ from their recent third record ‘Entity’. Sections of the slowly growing crowd quickly seemed to be enjoying the Swedish quintet. They sounded okay from my position near the back, although I might have tweaked the drums/bass and raised the vocals a touch to give lively vocalist Kristian Fyhr a little extra umph. SC played two more from ‘Entity’, with ‘Path Of The Absurd’ and ‘Mayflower’, alongside ‘Million Times’ from ‘Wonderland’, and ‘So Beautiful’ and closer ‘Say What You Need To Say’ from the debut ‘Delirium’. It did make me smile that they shared a pop culture moment with another long-time favourite Tyketto in that both close main sets with their first ever song on record (‘Forever Young’). For some reason, bassist Olof Gadd kept reminding me of WWE’s Finn Balor due to his beard., a sign I may be watching too much wrestling!
As is often the case with working week triple bills, the change from one band to the next was fairly swift and it wasn’t long before the second act bounced onto stage. The Underworld continued to fill and was reaching that “goldilocks zone” as Cassidy Paris opened with ‘Midnight Desire’ from her debut album. Paris is an Australian vocalist who is in her early twenties and already released two EPs, a debut album and toured many times. The sound mix was decent and even Paris was a bit clearer in the mix. She is a bit of a livewire on stage and bounced around from side-to-side throughout the show, often standing with her father Steve Janevski stage left. Her interactions with the crowd seemed genuine and appreciative of the fans that had come out on a Monday night. From where I stood, it looked like she had a similar reaction from the crowd as Seventh Crystal, but from different people. Her voice suits the style of music and she has the energy of youth with her stage craft. Paris and her band delivered three more from the debut – ‘Here I Am’, ‘Danger’ and closer ‘Walking On Fire’ – plus ‘Nothing Left To Lose’ and ‘Butterfly’. She also dropped a classic cover with ‘I Hate Myself For Loving You’, a nod to once of her main influences.
Both openers were entertaining, but I think most people were hotly awaiting the headliners, hot being the operative word. As mentioned, I have been to The Underworld at all different times of the year and I can’t ever remember it being so hot in there, and the main act hadn’t even started. It really did take you back to the olden/golden days of Rock and Metal where even the biggest names started in small, sweat-dripping clubs.
Harem Scarem kicked off with the groovy ‘Better The Devil You Know’ from their recent sixteenth (yes, you read that correct!) studio album ‘Chasing Euphoria’. With such a back catalogue, it must be so hard to balance the set with tracks from those initial two monsters, other albums and most recent songs. From the latest to the first ever track on a record, ‘Hard To Love’ erupted and the sing-alongs began. Much like the openers, there seemed to be a decent number who really loved the newer stuff, and a great number who adored the classics. With four from the debut and five from ‘Mood Swings’, half the set catered for the latter. They all sounded fabulous and it was easy to get swept up in the infectious tunes that I knew so well. The corking ‘Distant Memory’ appeared early on, while the heartbreaking ‘Honestly’ and beloved ‘Slowly Slipping Away’ appeared near the end. ‘If There Was A Time’ came mid-set, as did the always delightful ‘Mandy’ solo from Pete Lesperance, while ‘No Justice’ provided the lone encore.
Elsewhere, there were five tracks from the ‘Thirteen’ to ‘Change The World’ period, including Cassidy Paris joining her tourmates on stage for ‘The Death Of Me’, plus a total of three from the new album, including the catchy title track of the new record surprisingly closing the main set. The crowd were also treated to a Lesperance-fronted ‘Boy Without A Clue’ and a cover of Bryan Adams’ ‘Summer Of 69’. It sounded amazing with that trademark unmistakable Harem Scarem chug and went down well with the crowd. Of the eighteen songs, it was my two favourites that topped the night for me – an early appearance for the scorching ‘Stranger Than Love’ and the absolute ripper that is ‘Sentimental Blvd’. I think almost everyone joined me as the crowd sung those to the almost dripping ceiling.
Harem Scarem were excellent tonight and I really enjoyed seeing them on the live stage again. The debut is just under thirty-five years old, and those decades of performing together showed with a fine, at times almost effortless performance. Harry Hess has always been and still is a great frontman, and he powered out the songs with class. Lesperance had an easy-going coolness to him, which was all the more remarkable when you consider the temperature, and it was nice to hear drummer Darren Smith singing ‘Sentimental Blvd’. It did make me chuckle as Hess dropped several jokes and funny comments regarding the heat. I think it is safe to say he thought it was a bloody sauna as well. Given the effort involved in drumming, I must salute Smith for hanging in there across eighteen songs in what was mentioned as one of the hottest shows they’d done. For me personally, the set-list was all most perfect, albeit a smidge of disappointment we got nothing from ‘Weight…’, even if I suspect some would have preferred a few more from the last few albums.
I had a blast tonight and hope it will be a shorter wait until I get chance to see them again. If you have not succumbed to this awesome Canadian group, I urge you to check them out and maybe you’ll be there next time they deliver another amazing show, hopefully the coolness will extend from the band to the environment next time.
Review: Dave Scott
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