NEMIS (NEw Music In Sweden) was the first stage to host a band on Tivolirock in 2012, and that band was upcoming To Dust from Lund.

“You’re not many, but you are wonderful!”
- Fredrik Wendel (vocals)

There was a light rain falling as the band took the stage, and in front of them stood something in the vicinity of 7 or 8 people to enjoy the show. Not a lot of people to fill out the large grass area in front of the stage.
Paradoxically, the band consisted of 6 members, a number far too high for the very small stage they had been put on...
None of this seemed to bother the band too much though, as they went straight to it with opening the party with their melodic death metal. Especially keyboardist Daniel managed to make good use of his part of the stage as he was constantly headbanging, staring wildly at the audience, or just singing along to the songs as well as creating a lively image of for the show. Vocalist Wendel and bassist Jens were also doing their bit to add to the party, whereas the two guitarists Sakis Papapanagiotou and Emil and drummer Andy took a calmer stance and only nodded their heads when not concentrating fully on their instruments. It would have been nice to see the performance part develop a bit, but it’s also fair to say that the small stage here put its limitations for the band.

Some things happened though, which were not expected; somewhere half-way through, Daniel put on a mouth-piece, reminiscent of the ones nurses and doctors use during surgery, but completely black except for the large white X across the mouth, something which gave off a more sinister look to the keyboardist.
Towards the end, Wendel also tried to get the now slightly larger crowd in on shouting “Hey”, a good attempt which sadly failed for the largest part.
Still, when the band reached the final song, we could tell that they were now completely warmed up, and ready to fire off everything they had. The whole band became more active and interesting, and Wendel even jumped off the stage and took a turn in the crowd with his wireless mic where tried to get people to shout along again, slightly more successful this time around.

To my ears, To Dust had a very professional sound for being such a new act, and given a larger stage to stand on I believe the show would have folded out more fully than it did here. It’s just important to remember playing every song as if it was the last one, not just the last one.
Still, the show had worked its magic on me, and I felt the day was off to a surprisingly good start!

Setlist (incomplete):

Fruset Blod
Connect To Disconnect