Beat a Go Go

Perttu Kivilaakso with Apocalyptica at the Webster Theater, Hartford Connecticut - photos by Heather-Rose Ryan

More photos from the concert.

It was late at night - or better, early in the morning.  Heather-Rose, her friend June and I were coming from the concert of a band called Origin in the metal club Rebel in NYC.  We were already in front of the doors of a blues club -next  door to the Bitter End where Bob Dylan spent many nights 'til the morning light...

Anyhow, Heather-Rose was wearing Apocalyptica's t-shirt, which she bought at her first Apocalyptica concert in the Worcester (Massachusetts) Palladium a few days before.  A tall guy with long blond hair stopped us and gave us a fanzine about ecology stuff, "how to save the Earth", and the CD he made with his friends. And then he started: "Well, you are wearing Apocalyptica's t-shirt -my girlfriend, she loves Apocalyptica. I haven't listened to their last CD yet, but they are a great band."  A brief enthusiastic and passionate discussion burst up about the four cello maestros and their hypnotic drummer from Finlandia.

Of course, Heather-Rose and me, we saved something extra for ourselves and didn't tell the guy that we had just interviewed Perttu Kivilaakso of the band, the third interview he has given to beat-a-go-go.com.... (the others are here and here)

Perttu Kivilaakso and Eicca Toppinen of Apocalyptica at the Webster Theater, Hartford Connecticut

All photos by Heather-Rose Ryan.

In September, Taisija and I made a trip to Connecticut to see everyone's favorite Finnish heavy-metal-cello band.

Not only was the music exciting and well-executed, but the band is great fun to watch on stage. Although they're classically-trained musicians, they don't seem to take themselves, or their adopted genre, too seriously. They enjoy it all. So did we.

Many thanks to the band and to the very kind staff of the Webster Theater.

Perttu and Taisija in Ljubljana (photo by Jan)

This time I met Perttu Kivilaakso at The Devil's Courtyard, one of the smaller atriums in the festival complex of Križanke, a beautiful summer theater in Ljubljana.  Paavo Lötjönen was giving the interview to one Slovenian radio station on the other side of this interesting place ... Perttu checked my recorder to see if everything is OK, and laughing to me in an ally way remembering what happened in Graz nearly a year ago.  In Graz after a sound check of Apocalyptica (which was in the middle of our interview) my recorder didn't work any more. I couldn't figure out what was wrong -  it was like it was cursed! .....I have to admit that I was »walking a half meter over the floor« leaving the hall where the sound check of Apocalyptica was.  Of course, being alone in the concert hall, with maybe the most unique metal band on the Earth, and to see them playing was like finding myself in a magical dream, with the charismatic Eicca the conductor of the ceremony...Well, I think every lover of great music can understand these feelings.  I was at many soundchecks in my life but this one was very special.  I feel it was a beautiful gift for me.  And of course, it was hard to wake up from this dream ... So, Perttu, as a real gentleman (maybe even a knight),  was taking care of my recorder and somehow bewitched it to start working again. After that, he responded to the rest of my questions and literally recorded it as well.  I am still very grateful to him.

Perttu Kivilaakso

(photo: Taisija P. Štupar)

Apocalyptica has created miraculous, beautiful cello music. It goes from minimalistic repetitions to thundering darkness, heavy metal riffs and drive, to almost classical string parts and rock ballads. Wherever we try to place their music -- in "cello rock" or somewhere in the space where metal and the classical world meet -- they are in a space by themselves.