By Jenn Stripling
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A great way for any rocker to bring in Spring Break is to go catch a show at Downtown Disney’s House of Blues (HOB), where local radio station 101.1 WJRR featured Apocalyptica. This was a long awaited show for their fans in Florida, since, due to medical issues pertaining to member Perrtu Kivilaakso the band had to cut their previous US tour short.

Cellist and drummer Mikko Siren spoke on behalf of Kivilaakso stating that “ He was very stressed by the time the first US tour came by. He’s feeling much better now.”

None the less, Apocalyptica is back on tour and made their way to the city beautiful on March 5. Opening the show for our Finnish friends was local band Staind Angel, who set the stage and the crowd. Before departing they asked the crowd if they were ready for Apocalyptica and from top to bottom the HOB cheered.

Front man Eicca Toppinen, greeted the audience with his thick Finnish accent and was curious to know if the crowd was ready for some heavy metal. The audience went into hysterics and drummer/cellist Mikko Siren broke into “Master of Puppets,”one of the many Metallica covers that began the beautiful merging of classical instruments and new age metal.

Despite being sick Pavvo Lotjonen was the most playful when it came to audience interaction, at least behind the mic.

Toppinen joked with the crowd “Who here has our new album, 7th Symphony, hmmm?” The audience roars and hands go soaring through the air. “That’s good, that’s good, now… it makes me wonder what is wrong with the rest of you!?”

Laughing as the crowd digested his humor Toppinen spun around, instrument in tow and jumped onto the drummer’s cage and proceeded to jam out with Siren.

In the rock world we know that we have to thank the collaboration with Bushs- Gavin Rosedale, Slipknots- Cory Taylor, Flyleafs- Lacy Mosley, Shinedowns- Brent Smith and Three Days Grace- Adam Gontier; for this not only gave Apocalytpica an opportunity to add words to their music, but also to break into American mainstream music.

Now we know that a single band can not run away on tour with the leads singers of five major rock bands, so deep down in the pit of vocalist, Apocalyptica found Tipe Johnson to perform with them on tour. Johnson is able to bring out the passion of Taylor, the intensity of Gontier and the emotion of Rosedale. What more could a band ask of their singer?

During their performance of ‘End of me’ the crowd chanted along and actually decided to break out into a mosh pit. Who would have thought? Security just stood by, obviously not wanting to catch somebody’s elbow in their eye.

The night came to an end as the sweaty rock stars continued head-banging on the stage and gave Orlando rockers a night of ecstasy, but not before the crowds desire for rock was fully satisfied.

“Encore, encore, encore,” The audience had not yet had their fill of Apocalyptica. With their little flash lights beaming across the crowd, the band graced the stage once more to give a great finale. Ending with their chart topping single, “I don’t care.”

The swarms of black attire exited the HOB in hopes that if they camped out in front of the bands bus, maybe, just maybe, Apocalyptica would come out and meet their fans. They did.

Amongst the autographs, photos and over-all giddy faces of their fans, Toppinen gave insight to his feelings on the success of the new album cover mosaic, that will be displaying 10,000 pictures of fans. Toppinen said, “It feels fantastic! I’m just happy that so many people did this for us. We thank them.”