Ville Valo Brings Goth Romantics Together In Houston 🪐 Krystiee Lee 🪐

Thursday night, Houstonian goth romantics gathered within House Of Blues for the long awaited Ville Valo (Heartagram) show along with special guest openers all the way from Reykjavik, Iceland; Kaelan Mikla. The amount of fans that showed up was unreal, the line to get in before doors opened was massive. Humans covered in Goth clothing, purple hair, and many many heartagram logo’ed accessories were quickly pouring into House Of Blues (myself included) and you can tell everyone was absolutely stoked. I personally have been a HIM fan since I was 13 so finally being able to catch anything Ville Valo related was literally a dream come true.

On top of that being able to cover the show AND photograph it?

Whew. What is this life?!

Kaelan Mikla – Photos: Krystiee Lee Photography

Anyways, Opening Icelandic post/punk/metal ladies, Kaelan Mikla set off the evening with moody deep blue scenes and scraping screams which really sucked me into them almost instantly. So much noise coming from only three tiny women was pretty damn impressive, I remember looking back as I was photographing and seeing the crowd just as shocked, stunned, and intrigued as I was.

Although singing strictly in Icelandic, the way they all sounded was thrilling yet gorgeous in its own way. These ladies really knew how to put on a great set and was a perfect choice to have opening for VV.

Ville Valo – Photos: Krystiee Lee Photography

Now for what mostly everyone was eagerly waiting for; VV ; Previously known for goth metal band HIM, was finally up next, and EVERYONE was scrunched up together and ready to sing along with their emo little hearts.

VV has been keeping his fans on their toes since announcing his solo upcomings back in 2020 when he surprise released his EP “Gothica Fennica Vol. 1” Then later on followed the official tour announcements along with album “Neon Nior”. So it’s pretty obvious, there was alot of extremely happy people in the crowd that night, at one point most of us thought there wasn’t going to be anything of VV or anything related to HIM anymore after his departure back in 2017.

Starting off with “Echolocate Your Love”, “Poison Girl”, “The Foreverlost”, and my personal favorite, “Right Here In My Arms” VV was already pulling the strings of our hearts and giving us attendees just the feels we all were expecting. Dressed in his usual sex gothic ritual of all black, with pink and purple lights to fill out the stage and venue, it absolutely was everything I imagined it to be and more. VV’s iconic voice sounded just as amazing in person as it does playing through your earbuds and vinyls. Throughout the set, VV played many songs ranging from all albums and had every single person in the crowd crying, singing, and screaming along. Ending the night with encore’s “Salute The Sanguine”, “The funeral Of Hearts”, and “Saturnine Saturnalia” VV proved once again how much of an iconic role model he is on us gothic lovers, and really set the bar high for the rest of the year of upcoming shows that are on our agendas.

VV Setlist: