Lavonardo

Spent friday evening on Senaatintori, enjoying the free concert put up by Helsingin Juhlaviikot. The subject was the year 1968, and covering the songs of the year were a bunch of finnish vocalists, singing to a well-stocked house band.

Walked in as the last of the warm-up bands, Eternal Erection, was finishing its set. The intermission before the main event was considerably brightened by a reel of snippets from Helsingin Sanomat running on screens next to the stage. The reel consisted not only of news (the occupation of Czechoslovakia, assassinations of King and Kennedy and sports featured prominently) but nostalgic ads from forty years ago also got their fifteen seconds of fame.

The concert kicked off predictably. Tipe Johnson’s (off Leningrad Cowboys) rendition of Steppenwolf’s Born to be wild was faithful to the original and not at all a bad start.

The artists changed quickly on stage, and alternated between individual songs and medleys.

The song selection (of which there seems to be no official set list available) was picking the cream of the crop of the year, and with a couple of exceptions consisted of familiar takes.

My favorites were the Zeppelin’s Good times, bad times, the Who-medley (Pinball wizard, Pictures of Lily and See me, feel me) and Rolling Stones’ Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Sympathy for the Devil.

The latter Stones’ piece was sung by Maya Paakkari, an artist unknown thus far, but based on her output (also sung Piece of my Heart) definitely worth of further investigation.

By far the biggest production values were used on Fredi’s Kolmatta Linjaa. Ismo Alanko was accompanied by some thirty members of the Cantores Minores on stage, and the rendition was somewhat unorthodox.

Marzi Nyman’s take on Hendrix classics (All along the Watchtower and Crosstown Traffic) was inspring, but seemingly too long and boring for some audience members. I figure the loudest singalongs happened with Mrs. Robinson and the final duet of Paula Koivuniemi and Mike Monroe of Hey Jude. The sole encore was the only song performed by the original artist from forty years ago - Eero Raittinen’s Vanha Holvikirkko was a spine-tingling finale in the quickly darkening Helsinki night.

The conditions were pretty much optimal. The weather was warm and almost windless. The crowd large and milling, but not packed like sardines. Drunken kids, always a plague on Night of the Arts events, mostly absent.

My n95 is still out of action (supposedly news of its condition should arrive next week), and the loaner phone’s basic 1 megapixel camera was not going to do well at all in the twilit conditions, hence the lack of pictures.

Caught PMMP on their first night of a back-to-back in Tavastia yesterday.

Missed My First Band, the warm-up, completely. The startup time was in the ballpark, waiting for fifteen minutes was by no means painful, even if the sold-out premises were warmed up and occasionally steaming.

The show was as energetic as expected, the year-long absence from the stage must have left a lot of pent-up energy to vent.

Didn’t recognize all the songs, and even missed the name of the one new song played.

Here’s the entire setlist, courtesy of the band’s message board:

Hyvin hiljaa
Kovemmat kädet
Valitusvirsi
Ikuinen leikki
Matkalaulu
Matoja
Mummola
Joutsenet
Joku raja
Kiitos
Oo siellä jossain mun
Niina
Taiteilia
Kesäkaverit
Päät soittaa
//
Päiväkoti
Kohkausrock

The biggest hit of the band thus far is curiously absent from the list. Maybe today’s selection is different. Maybe not. They did, however, play the two songs I really wanted to hear. Even when faced with the prospect of losing my reputation as a tungsten-hearted metalhead, I found the matkalaulu/oo siellä jossain mun duo touching, as usual.

I’ve written many articles about the forthcoming Guns n’ Roses album.

Its arrival has moved towards believable a couple of notches lately:

• Shackler’s Revenge, a song to be featured on Rock Band 2, has been leaked.
• A believable cover image has also been leaked.

Whether these leaks mean that the album actually will be released any time soon is, as usual, completely unknown.

[ via Schizoblog. ]

A month before the release of Death Magnetic, Metallica played a new track at Ozzfest. Unsurprisingly, youtube is full of amateur takes.

Here’s one:

[ via roklintu. ]

Saw Neil Young in Hartwall Arena on thursday.

I’ve seen the artist previously once, in 2001, touring with Crazy Horse. Based on the name of the band on this tour “Electric Band”, I expected the same kind of growling guitars and harsh treatment of the audience’s ears. That didn’t happen, the proceedings were on the mellow side, with song selection avoiding the rockiest bits.

As far as I know, the thursday’s concert served as the launching board of a completely new song, which was not named, hence the quotes below.

The set list (courtesy of Sugar Mountain):

Love And Only Love
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
I've Been Waiting For You
"Singing A Song Won't Change The World" (?)
Spirit Road
Cortez The Killer
Cinnamon Girl
Oh, Lonesome Me
Mother Earth
The Needle And The Damage Done
Unknown Legend
Helpless
Heart Of Gold
Old Man
Get Back To The Country
Words
No Hidden Path
//
A Day In The Life

The stage setup was simple, the only surprising element was the use of song-specific paintings on an easel on the right edge of the stage.

Apart from the No Hidden Path, the songs were executed quickly - the last song of the regular set turned into a fifteen minute jam. The encore was a new take on a Beatles classic.

The concert was fully seated, even the people on the ice had benches. Unlike the 2001 gig, the ushers seemed to enforce seating, and there was no rush towards the stage.

von Hertzen Brothers served as the warm-up act, and filled their thirty minutes effectively.

T-shirts were expensive at 30€, and the vendors had a hard time dealing with people paying with plastic. The lines stretched almost unbearably as the machinery slowed down the transactions.

Spent a couple of hours around noon walking around Tampere and catching two museums I’d long planned to visit.

The Lenin Museum was smaller than I thought - basically two rooms packed with paraphernalia (letters and documents mainly) on the life of the first soviet leader.

The Spy Museum was a slightly bigger affair, and packed with lots of information and goods. The museum in Tampere claims to be the very first establishment on the subject in the world, but the vastly bigger one in D.C. has surpassed this. Though here photography is not banned, it just costs extra.

Rounded out the trip with a visit to Swamp Music (new Alice Cooper and Blackfoot’s Flying High amongst the loot) and a lunch at Plevna (excellent mutton sausages accompanied by stingingly hopsy pale ale).

Planned on catching Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight in Plevna, but an overstretched powernap on top of a quality pizza meant it’s not to be.

For those of us who have trouble with Through the Fire and the Flames already on medium, let alone expert: DeepNote, a Guitar Hero bot is able to help. Though this would, obviously, be nothing short of cheating.

Meh.

Björk just cancelled her open air concert on thursday because of problems with her voice.

Didn’t have a ticket, but was quite prepared to loiter outside the arena to listen to the music.

The arena of guitar-fronted games seems to be in quite a flux.

Just to spoil this week’s release of the fifth game in the Guitar Hero series, the one concentrating on Aerosmith, Harmonix put out a press release to inform the game-buying public of the impending release of sequel to last year’s Rock Band. With Guitar Hero adding a comparable set of instruments in the forthcoming World Tour, Rock Band’s success is by no means as guaranteed as it appeared to be upon its release.

The first Rock Band still hasn’t been released in Finland - and the rumor mill spins out that it never actually will, and the sequel will take care of all the wannabe rockers. A very positive factoid of the christmas release is the continued usability of content from the first game as well as of any downloaded songs. Clearly a step up from the game-specific music of the Guitar Hero-series. My exposure to the game is limited to a two hour review session, but the guitars left a definitely flimsy impression. The instrument quality is one of the issues Harmonix will address in the sequel, so the complaint is probably not valid for long.

Incidentally, the third installment of the Guitar Hero-saga is available for a very reasonable price in the summer sale of Stockmann. The 30 euro price doesn’t include a guitar, but for owners of the previous games it’s a definite bargain. I’m now 3/4ths through the easy game, and the song selection has been very much on the impressive side, with only a couple of boring pieces thrown in.

The highlight of the show, the digit-maiming Through the Fire and the Flames by DragonForce is not available immediately, only after the game’s been beaten once. I’ve seen it shredded close to perfection on expert-difficulty, and don’t anticipate to be able to ever reach those lofty heights.

The Tuba Hero t-shirt pictured here is yet another spoof on the original game, this one produced by Torsopants.

It’s been a while since I read Sleevage, the premier record cover analysis blog.

Today, however, the lead article was on the long and varied history of Iron Maiden’s sleeves. From the heights of Derek Riggs‘ finest to the nadir that was Dance of Death in 2002.

Sadly, Riggs’ own site seems to be down right now.

Spent the wednesday night at the pre-show of Tuska Festival, watching a trio of quality bands.

Arrived just in time for Epica. The dutch art school goth metallers put on a good show, despite the rain moving onto the arena. A couple of thunderclaps added to the effect nicely, and even though most of the audience didn’t really have a clue about their records, the reception was positive.

During Amorphis‘ show the skies broke open, and at times the rain fell in quasi-biblical proportions. This was actually my very first time seeing the band, and their fifty-odd minutes on stage were entertaining indeed. Didn’t recognize all the songs, but the entire show, not just the couple familiar ones from Silent Waters were much appreciated.

The main event kicked off with the most played song on Radio Rock. Nightwish took the stage with Bye Bye Beautiful and didn’t let go for almost two hours. This was the first time I saw them with the vocalist, and while Anette Olzon is no opera singer, she executed both new songs and old classics well on stage (and the printed summer frock was a definite change of pace from Tarja Turunen’s black leather). The set list below gets an assist point for Imperiumi, a couple of songs went unrecognized on stage. The highlights (measured on how bad the songs made my skin crawl) were The Islander and Sleeping Sun.

Bye Bye Beautiful
Dark Chest of Wonders
Dead to the World
The Siren
Amaranth
The Islander
Poet and the Pendulum
Slaying the Dreamer
While Your Lips Are Still Red
Sahara
Nemo
---
Sleeping Sun
7 Days to the Wolves
Wish I Had An Angel

I blame the heavy number of tourists on the success of Nightwish, it’s been a long while since I’ve met so rude people on a gig, bumping and crowding was the order of the day, not courteous co-existence usually so common.

Never checked out the vendors, but according to hearsay the t-shirts were beyond the point of comfort at 30€.

Nightwish was the only band with any pyrotechnics on stage, with the exception of red streamers whipping in the wind, the technology was pretty much wasted on a well-lit night, and thus by far the greatest special effect was provided by mother nature: the double rainbow (with a bonus supernumerary rainbow within the primary) in the sky.

Thus far it’s been a pretty conventional urban midsummer:

• Summer Party - good music for a change (Lauri Tähkä), beer chilled and official nachspiel locations hopelessly crowded.
• Pre-eve barbecue - excellent steaks once again, conversation that stumbled between subjects at lightspeed, and the first drink ever named after me.
• Getting rained on - not seriously, and only a couple of times.
• Neo-punk is back once again - Offspring’s new album is not bad at all, and Green DayFoxboro Hottubs’ debut definitely mandates further investigation.
• Watching only the last three minutes of the extra time Croatia-Turkey was the most economical way for football spectatorship ever - two goals and cosmic amounts of drama.
• And speaking of football, ended up actually sharing the top position at the office EURO 2008 pool, but as the organizer was not awarded for the skills.

Metallica has now named their ninth studio album and even given it a summary release date.

Death Magnetic and “september 2008″, respectively.

Moonsorrow’s recent 30+ minute epic Tulimyrsky turns out not to be a an unique long-form blip on the four minute radar screen: Swallow the Sun’s Plague of Butterfiles will clock in at 35 minutes and change.

Hardly radio-friendly, but the ability to build up crescendoes whose duration is measured in minutes can not be disrespected.

It’s been seven years since my first live exposure to Neil Young. Seven really long years, as I thought the gig was in the summer of 2003.

The Ontario-born musician returns to Helsinki in August, and I seriously hope to attend the show.

Word magazine provides a thorough explanation why all the records allegedly sound the same, and very loud at that.

Recommended reading - and don’t mind the playlist-rant in the very beginning, it gets vastly better later on.

Spot the runaway memes from Weezer’s Pork and Beans.