Beat a Go Go

Finns are very heavily metal-orientated people. It shows very clearly on the Finn Top 40 chart every week and whenever some major Finn metal act releases a new CD, it is bound to go right on the top of the chart, maybe even to number one. And then there are several metal-orientated festivals in Finland, like Nummirock and Sauna.  Most of the so-called mainstream festivals offer also their fair share of metal. Just pop into their web sites to see the line-up for festivals like Ruisrock (this summer: Tool, Opeth, Saxon....), Provinssirock (this summer: Korn, Deftones, Within Temptation….) or Ilosaarirock (this summer: Katatonia, Entombed…) but the brightest jewel in the crown of all those is Tuska Open Air Metal Festival held in Kaisaniemi, Helsinki.

Maybe that also adds to the fact that Tuska is one of the most peaceful, cheerful (can I use such a word when writing about a metal festival?) and out right chilled out festival I have ever attented. When whole load of similar minded people gather together, place will be covered with a blanket of tranquillity.

Yeah, I know, sarcasm there.

But still, Tuska is a peaceful festival with only minor disturbances like fights.

But let‘s see what changes this year brings to the weather front, because now Tuska is held earlier than in previous years. So far, Tuska has been held in the middle of July, but in 2006, it will be held at the end of June. That is because there is something else going on in Kaisaniemi at the time Tuska has traditionally been held. But still, I’m pretty damn sure it will gather together a similar crowd of 33,000 metal heads as it did in 2005. Also, one thing worth mentioning about Tuska is the noise levels. The city of Helsinki has determined that noise levels in Tuska are way too high, so they want to cut that from 78 db to 65 db. What will that bring is also a thing to see. Maybe only acoustic metal music, eh? In the way of MTV Unplugged.

Also, one thing has been flashed every now and then: Tuska may be removed to another location. But to me the whole point of Tuska is that it’s held in the middle of Helsinki. Just think of it: every year, year after year, the police, the occupants around Kaisaniemi, all together say that Tuska is a very peaceful happening. Not too many fights, not too much vandalizing. So why should it be removed to some godforsaken place? Now it is within the reach of all the public transport and what does it mean if a mass of people dressed in black and spikes do not fit in Helsinki for three days out of 365? Even the people spreading the good word of God can harass people 365 days a year.

To get a full view of how to hold a major heavy metal festival in Finland, I went to see what is going on at the festival area a week before the actual festival happens. I was expecting at least something to be seen, maybe some stages to be built or so. But nothing. Nothing, not even a hint of things to come.

Nothing a week prior to the festival. The festival area looked just like it would do every other day of the year.

I left the area a bit concerned but while I drove away I was determined that people behind Tuska knew what they were doing.

And to get a totally opposite view of the whole thing, I visited the area again, about 8 months after the festival and about 3 months before Tuska 2006. I wanted to spend some time there, reminiscing about days gone past. It was a nice day, like a real spring day. Sun was shining very brightly, snow was slowly melting and the ice skating area that dominates the area during winter was slowly melting away.

I knew what the future held for Finland weatherwise, so I knew that the springlike weather was just a tease. Winter made a comeback to Finland the very next day (and for your information, it's still snowing, for the second day in a row).

But there I was standing in the middle of an ice rink, listening to kids playing on the playgound next to the area that will be the Tuska area later this year. A great tit was singing and it was there and then it hit me how ûberly and overwhelmingly great summer is. It hit me how much of my childhood memories in fact are connected to rock festivals. Usually people seem to be thinking about long summer nights in some peaceful place, I seem to be remembering long summer nights at some rock festival. Smells too. Smells like someone passing and smoking tobacco, the smell of wee in some remote corner of a festival area, and flashes of hundreds, maybe thousands of bands in different stages. Makes me think if I've missed something crucial in childhood memories, but when I dig deep, there are also those peaceful times. Oh well, life.

Also, it hit me how long and depressing wintertime in Finland is and how much I miss summer festivals. Usually, I think the older I get, the more I like to go to rock clubs to hear my dose of loud music.

Finntroll, Tuska 2005 (photo by Toni Välisalo)

Standing in Kaisaniemi, in about zero degrees of Celsius and a winter storm looming in the corner of Finland, looking at the empty space, I remember vividly the summer day when one of the biggest bands in 2005, Teräsbetoni, was playing there. A huge crowd had gathered to see them and to hear their hero-battle metal. Crap they were, but still, people liked those skinny guys in black leather pants without shirts, not forgetting the bald patch of one of the members of Teräsbetoni. Hmmmm..... long black hair and a bald patch. Nice thing to look at when the musician is headbanging.

Also, I remembered better bands playing on that same stage, like Finntroll. I'm really very much into their combination of metal with... well... troll-like elements. They are huge fun. Although, currently, they have sacked their vocalist Wilska so it'll be interesting to see who will be the next growler of the band. Still, gotta love those Trolls.

Apocalyptica, Tuska 2005 (photo by Toni Välisalo)

Also, among bands gracing the mainstage was the cello playing metal band, Apocalyptica. I'm still not sure what to think of them. I mean, they've been together for years now and they have quite a fan base around the world, but still..... I'm not sure whether they are good and brilliant or just stupid and boring. They have great elements in their music and the covers they play sound pretty damn good, but watching them live, it is just a so-so experience. I get so easily bored watching three guys sawing their big fiddles.

Children of Bodom was also on the main stage at some point. Yet another band I really do not understand. Too much keyboard, too obnoxious a vocalist, not enough memorable riffs. Apparently I'm just about alone with my thoughts of CoB. They have a massive following all around the world, so I just as well might be stupid.

Rightly so, on the main stage there were all the big names, some of them even from my youth. Bands like Testament. I used to be very much into them, but now their act was just lame. I spotted one guy from my past, Teemu, who also used to be a huge Testament fan and he seemed to enjoy their act. "Nice to hear all those songs from by-gone years," Teemu told me. "Look, a lonely tear rolling down my cheek."

But then again, a band I have not paid much attention to in my former life, Monster Magnet, was quite entertaining. I've even bought one or two of their cds now. So it was good. Maybe it is because they don't totally fit in the "metal" definition in the music they play, but still, good rocking. Maybe I was just drunk.

One band really suffering from the bright surroundings of a Finn summer festival was the Norwegian black metal ambassador Dimmu Borgir. All the threat black metal should have was shot to, well, hell with the bright daylight. No matter how many dark clouds gathered above Kaisaniemi at the time, Dimmu was more tedious than threatening. Dimmu sounds so much better from my car stereo when driving around in the middle of a winter night. Even the band members seemed to be somewhat lost with their bright surroundings.

Standing there now, looking around, the soundcheck noises missing, the only electronically enhanced sound was from the Central railway station telling me that the train to Vantaanlaakso had been cancelled and the next train there would leave in two minutes from the next track.

Looking right from the place where the main stage was earlier, there's the place where the main gate was and also the spot where the Hellsinki stage (a tent) was. That's the place where I watched the two best bands in Tuska 2005 perform - Stam1na and Viikate.

Stam1na has been playing together for years and during all those years when nobody knew them, they'd been polishing and tightening their act. In 2005 they released their debut CD and what a truly brilliant CD it was. One of the best metal CDs I've ever heard and a future classic.  Kids today will refer to it in the future as the CD "that made me take a guitar and start playing." Stam1na's been compared to System of a Down, but to me that's not right. Stam1na is in a league of its own, so fast, so twisted, so full of riffs that go first that way and all of a sudden turn the other way totally. Not forgetting lyrics that aren't sung in a growling manner (ok, there are those bits too, but they're totally balanced with "normal" vocals too). Lyrics that are about people and games people play so they can lose. Tuska was the first time I heard them live and I was totally blown away by the sheer energy of their act and how good their songs sounded live. What a great band.

And right after them, it was Viikate time. Viikate is now a real rock band and they sound simply superb. There isn't another band in the world that sound similar to Viikate and they would be one of the biggest bands in Finland if just the vocalist Kaarle had a bit more body to his voice. Maybe he could drink whiskey for a year, so that would be corrected too.

I sigh deeply and walk to the left from where the main stage was and come to a wall of snow, almost up to my balls. Behind that wall is a spot where Sue Stage (another tent), was.

One of the bands I marvelled there was Rotten Sound, the brightest star in the Finn grind core scene. They have a good attitude with their act and their nihilistic inhuman grind has already reached the mainstream interest in Finland as their albums are quite a typical sight on the Finn Top 40 chart (yet another proof that Finns are one metalhead nation). Kinda weird, if you think of it. Huge noise they made, really cacophonic, but still, quite enjoyable.

Paska, Tuska 2005 (photo by Toni Välisalo)

In 2005 Tuska had really put loads of effort to announcements given out from every stage before every act. One of the presentors was Paska ("Shit" in English). Paska is a guy called Ari Peltonen and he's a radio presenter, a tv person, an author, a performance artist and a single man band. He plays every instrument himself when he performs and I really mean, every fucken instrument. Although, there's a twist there. He cannot play any instruments, so he uses his mouth. If the song has a guitar riff, he goes "ty-ty-ty-dy" and starts to shout the lyrics. And I mean SHOUT. LOUD! He shouts in his radio show, in his tv shows..... And he is funny as hell and I bet, in 2015 when I try to remember what happened in Tuska 2005, I'll remember Paska. Just go to his site and check out the mp3s there.

Around Tuska there also is a whole bunch of rock clubs that host very interesting bands. Sadly, I've never attented even one of those. The heaviest (hehe, no pun intended) reason for such anti-social behaviour is the weather that I mentioned earlier. It's been so hot during the Tuska day and I'm all sweaty and greasy, so I don't dare enter a place where there would be people standing right next to me. I reek. Sadly, this year there would be a band that I simply adore. Roctum. If there's any justice in the world, they must be the next big thing in Finn rock scene. Someone called them "the bastard child of Twisted Sister and Motley Crew" and that's not too far away from the truth. Their music is sort of retro '80s hard rock, pretty much the stuff I grew up with before I turned to listen to punk and hc, so it touches a nostalgic soft spot in me. I saw them live in Provinssirock 2005 and the thing that really impressed me was the effort and dedication they put into their live act. Robots, fireworks, costumes, all were there and all done in the most campy and cheap way. That really did the trick for me, that really lifted them to be the highest note in that festival and made me leave their presence with a smile on my face. So, as I said, if there's even a small amount of justice in the world, Roctum will be the next big thing. Just like some years ago me and my mates used to laugh our asses off at Teräsbetoni and their website and now they are huge, it's just the same thing I wish to happen to Roctum. The only difference is that Roctum is sort-of-original and good, where as Teräsbetoni is unoriginal and bad.

With all this rush of memories, I walk back to the car. I had parked it to the spot which last year was the place for beer for all the metalheads of a legal drinking age. Also, it was the spot that was the last remaining excess spot of Kaisaniemi, a spot that was the only way Tuska could still spread. Now it is in use too. And that means that Kaisaniemi is also getting too small for Tuska.

Adding that area to the Tuska area, it only improves Tuska's already brilliantly organized organization. Services are smooth and run like honey. There were only two spots where visible queues were in the forementioned new beer area and to the stall that sold band memorabilia. But then again, beer and black t-shirts with band logos are always worth queueing for. And as everyone can guess, the beer area looked like a monkey cage but the overall feeling even in there, as it was throughout the festival was very at-ease. Food wise the area had several different spots of nourishment, varying from vegetable dishes to greasy sausages.

Toilets are always the bottleneck of any event with more than three people attending. But from what I observed, in Tuska it was not so. Maybe I checked the toilets every time when no one needed to peepee or poopoo, but even that was a smoothly running thingamalee and no fights broke out on the lines.

It is always nice to see festivals where the organizers have really put time and effort into making things run well. And it's only obvious. If organizers put loads of effort into little things, people are happier and will also come back next year. Simple is good.

So, if I started this piece wondering why Tuska should be thrown out of Kaisaniemi, maybe that is the point. But surely there are other vacant lots in the Helsinki area that can be used in this good way? Right?

While driving away from Kaisaniemi, one thing that always comes first on my mind when talking about Tuska - the girlies who attend are all the most sexy and the most hot of all the festival-going girlies. And that is a fact.

Amoral, Tuska 2005 (photo by Toni Välisalo)

Links:
Festivals:
Nummirock - http://www.nummirock.fi/
Sauna - http://www.sauna-open-air.f i/
Tuska Open Air Metal Festival - http://www.tuska-festival.f i/
Bands:
Apocalyptica - http://www.apocalyptica.com
Children of Bodom - http://www.childrenofbodom. com
Deftones - http://www.deftones.com/
Dimmu Borgir - http://www.dimmu-borgir.com
Entombed - http://www.entombed.org/
Finntroll - http://www.finntroll.net/
Katatonia - http://www.katatonia.com/
Korn - http://www.korn.com/
Monster Magnet - http://www.monstermagnet.ne t
Motley Crew - www.motley.com
Opeth - http://www.opeth.com/
Paska - http://www.paska.info/
Rotten Sound - http://www.rottensound.com/
Saxon - http://www.saxon747.com/
Stam1na - http://www.sakararecords.co m/stam1na/index2.php
System of a Down - http://www.systemofadown.co m/
Teräsbetoni - http://www.terasbetoni.com/
Testament - http://www.testamentlegions .com/
Tool - http://www.toolband.com/
Twisted Sisters - www.twistedsisters.com
Viikate - http://www.viikate.com/
Within Temptation - http://www.within-temptatio n.com/
Places & Towns:
Helsinki - http://www.hel.fi/
Kaisaniemi - http://www.domnik.net/helsi nki/fi/kaisaniemi.shtml
TV:
MTV Unplucked - http://www.mtv.com/
TOP40 - http://www.yle.fi/lista/