Lithuania 2021 - Black Spikes and Indre Launikonyte – Don't Tell Me

(Click here for a portal into a noisier world if you can't see the video above…)

The self same schalgerists who've been moaning about that only-very-slightly-gammony Jorn getting knocked out in Norway seem to have been staying conspicuously quiet on Black Spikes failure to progress in Lithuania last night. "Why can't we have more rock at Eurovision?!" they whine, ignoring the fact that their Norse grandpa offered up one of the most cringeworthy three minute of try-hard awkwardness we've seen in flipping ages. A poor pop tune wrapped in fur and leather and sixth form poetry, the punters saw right through it and gave it the early exit it deserved.

However Black Spikes should feel infinitely more hard done by, because they put their heart and soul into doing something a little more artful and imaginative. Evoking the dark, on stage theatrics of bands like Portal, Earth, and every dare I say it the edgier side of Ghost, they came on stage swathed in fabric and spiky headgarb, and acted out a dramatic spooky tale that drew you right into its universe so that you believed every second of it - even if you might not have known entirely what was going on. And when it got to the growling bit - oh my days I was in heaven! Or maybe it was the other place…

One suspects they put them in the opening slot to wake up the punters, but the now tediously fun-hating Pabandom Iš Naujo jurors marked them just low enough cancel out a very respectable televote score. But while the song in itself wasn't great, the character and the atmosphere and the pure presentation power of Black Spikes elevated the performance to much higher levels than any of us expected when we heard the isolated audio.

This here is what all you "I don't normally like rock, but…" lot should have been mourning the loss of, not that superannuated pub rock dad with floppy hair and an over tight outfit. Let's hope they come back next year with a better song and a face-melting stage show!