Nightingales & Pontikka & Nubians

26/05

Arriving in Rovaniemi 10.00 am. Blue sky, sunshine, get picked up by Mäxi the Nightingales' drummer and his girlfriend Kirsi. This town always feels a bit like coming home. Afternoon rehearsals with Jorma (the Nightingales piano player) and Mäxi. Later on a pleasant little gig at Paha Kurki bar on Koskikatu makes this an enjoyable tour day. Otto Mikkola of Oskari Heikkinen & Arktinen Voodoo is there and passes me their new album. Great stuff as I expected after having them supporting me last year at the Grande just around the corner from here.



27/05

Mäxi preparing for the recordings

Recording sessions done and went down really well. Instrumental tracks of two songs fixed and thus half of the upcoming 7" ep. A pleasure working with the guys and sound engineer Tuomas.

28/05

Last day in Lapland. Did some cooking for Kirsi, here lovely daughter Sanni and Mäxi. That was most welcome fun. Love cooking. Should do this regularly on tour. Or at least any time there are decent facitilities. Gone for some tapa variation. Albondigas, chicken in white wine garlic sauce and a white beans and  serrano salad. A sunny summer day rounded up in the evening meeting all the boys from back in the days. Greenhouse AC, Nightingales and even Tuomas of Saariston Lapset. Good to see they're all doing fine. Got the second big compliment on this tour from Sanni and had some top notch Pontikka on top.

29/05

Timely at Vastavirta, Tampere. Yläkerta, their upstairs cafe, is just like made for my accoustic solo gigs. Amazing place. Attentive audience. After soundcheck the venue people send me to sauna. Just a few minutes' walk down Pispalan Valtatie one can find one of Finland's oldest still running public saunas. A very special place and just the right thing to have after 9 hours on a train and a possibly bit too crazy night at the Arctic Circle. Janne Laurila whom I haven't seen in years turns up for my show, invites me to stay at his place and hands me the latest album of his new band Janne Laurila & Tuhlaajapojat. Another familiar face is Jukka another member of Saariston Lapset. Last met 15 years ago. I still wonder if there is anybody apart from some really weird electronic music nerds who knows this band and how someone could have been so mad to put out their record then. Another miracle about this whacky art-meets-electronic-dada-pop project is that they've done a full tour of Germany after the album release. Gig was lovely. Really lovely.

30/05

Endless waiting for soundcheck at Henry's Pub in Helsinki but once we're there it feels most comfortable on stage. Playing a good 50 min set and leave stage soaking wet. My suit I must admit get's after this 7th gig pretty close to a state that can only be described as disgusting. Anyway a good one. The gig i mean. Great to see the Blue In The Face guys and Johan in the audience. Vallu who is hosting these "Helatorstai" clubs is like always brillantly compèring the evening. This hot summer evening's second band is Kap Kap from apparently Helsinki who are playing an eclectic blend of psychedelic indie rock, Bowie and Shellac. Good band. Later on we find out their guitarist and me met before. Some years ago after playing a Midnight Sun Filmfestival sideshow with Desert Planet we apparently had a chat on the river bank in Sodankylä at the traditional end of festival hang out.
Interesting news: Kimmo of Blue In The Face tells me they're going to play some German shows with Fucking World. The latter a punkrock legend from Finland with my old tour acquaintance Näkä Närhi on guitar.

31/05

Last day of May 2013 I find myself with two instrument cases and two way too heavy bags on the train to Kuopio. Last solo gig on this tour supporting Faarao Pirttikangas & Kuhmalahden Nubialaiset at Henry's Pub in Kuopio. Get there way too early and too knackered to have a look around town. Particularly because of all the rubbish I'm dragging across Finland.

Not light enough to travel. Not really.

Instead decide to smoke all of my accidentally bought menthol cigarettes and update my tourblog. Failed with the latter.      
The gig turns out to be the most satisfying one on this tour. A good crowd has turned up to see their hometeam Faarao Pirttikangas playing and is surprisingly really listening to what I'm doing. In fact they seem to be really into it. None is leaving, nobody chatting. Sound is fantastic and the playing goes down perfectly well this time. Hot again. Again wet suit. Respectful words and backslapping from the Faarao Pirttikangas guys makes this a perfect last one. Encouraging after a little down this afternoon. The odd tour crisis caught up with me on the way here.

Right after gig. Good there are are no odo-rama pics.

A word about Faarao Pirttikangas. It's a long time since I last heard some band like this perform. I don't think I'm exaggerating saying this is the most inspiring and definitely outstanding band from Finland. Absolutely unique in their way. Fingers crossed the wave of success they're currently riding carries on.

Faarao Pirttikangas right before gig

It's a long one this Friday night in Kuopio. Long talks with the Faarao guys (namely their bassist, their singer Pekka and their trombone player Pertti), run into Tomi Kosonen and Paul Staufenbiel of Aavikko and end the evening in the wee hours on Pekka's balcony, smoking a last ziggy and sipping red wine from coffee mugs round six in the morning. No less than a magic evening here in eastern Finland.
Footnote: before leaving I manage to get me a Kalakukko (no link here - ask Wikipedia or something) on the market square. The real thing.

From Norrlandspölsa to Suisto Klubi

21/05
Woke up early, the lake covered in mist. Jumpstart myself with coffee at the nearby motel bar.Watching truck drivers having a break, boat owners chauffering their swimming sweethearts towards the lake shore which looks like dolphins on skateboards.

Stop for finding a cheap hotel in Nykobing, succeed and have a fantastic Swedish dish there. For vegetarians completely unsuitable, for people like me taylor made. You got to try this: Norrlandspölsa! Todays fiurther challenges include: rethink some arrangements and mentally prepare for the ferry to Turku. Usually the most annoying part of the trip.

Honestly. I'm a bit disappointed. Where have all those good times gone? A packed ferry, youngsters throwing up, the full array of Finnish society going bananas with the omnipresent slot machines, cheap alcohol, terrible dance bands, even worse troubadours in the so called rock bar aboard the infamous Stockholm-Turku line. None of it was there.
Apart from the quality of the musical performances it seems everything has dramatically changed. Fins tired of alcohol? Is this the end? Of Alko shops? Of Viking lines' booze cruises? Of the world as we know it? This spells "Disappointment" all along the line. On top of that I have to drive off the boat in reverse gear this time.
If I don't want to miss out on this part of the journey I'm afraid the next time I have to go via Estonia and take the Tallinn-Helsinki boat.
Arriving 7 am in the morning in Turku gives me a whole day of loitering around. Deciding not to go first thing for a pint I find myself doing an extensive walk around Ruissalo in the drizzeling rain. Seems funny that nowadays things like this are just ok for me to make an exciting day.

22/05

No real big expectations for the first tour gig on a Wednesday night in Turku. Yet this one turns out to be a fantastic evening. Jyrki Mäkelä of formerly 100 Million Martians fame opens the evening at Pikku-Torre with a most pleasant singer-songwriter set in best Nikki Sudden tradition. A small attentive audience came down to see the two Mäkeläs and I'm pleased to see some faces I've seen a year ago at my gig in Bar Kuka just around the corne. My set goes down nicely and get's a bit out of hand towards the end. Ending it playing "Lonesome Town" atop of a table and selling a surprising lot of cds after the show.
An enjoyable evening which ends with a last round in nearby Klubi with my fellow Mäkkelä, his wife Satu, Mikko and part of the audience. Staying the night at Mikko "Lappis" Lappalainen's (whom you might know of Finland's garage-blues heroes Boomhauer). Having breakfast down by the river in a place named Hundsvotti Satamakapaka. Off to Hämeenlinna.

23/05

Meeting Janne Westerlund at Suisto Klubi for our first common gig in Finland. A nice little venue with an extraordinary soundman. Probably the best live sound since playing Vienna in April. The new songs work out even better than yesterday and with a big smile Tommi the sound guy passes me a cd with a live cut of the full gig before I leave.You can hear my version of Grant Hart's /Hüsker Dü's "Diane" on soundcloud. A late night's drive through the rainy woods to our Mökki.

Previously unreleased song online

Hiho!

My favourite British cowboys at Trashville put this up. An amazing, free compilation! Have a listen! Good stuff.

Few things have to be mentioned here: Mr. Robin van Velzen played the Banjo, Stefan Nast-Kolb the accordion and my Hobo buddy Michael Stroell recorded this song. If you ever get to Brighton don't forget to have a pint at the Northern Lights.

And even more good news. I'm more than pleased to announce that the upcoming shows in Vienna and Munich are going to be with the amazing Isi Roessler on upright bass. The second gig she did with me last Monday was nothing less than a blinder! There are some quite nice pics on Konstantin Himonakis' facebook page.