TUSKA 2009 – Pt.1: We Want More, Faith No More
Five sleepless nights in Kaisaniemi and Beyond
This year’s Tuska Festival was intense. Not just the bands, which weren’t especially special, but five long days of gigs, booze and sunburn. When you only get one of these special weekends per year, it’s a welcome celebration. But when you’re nearing your 30′s, going to back-to-back festival weekends throughout the summer, and are still hungover from Nummirock, it’s quite laborious. While saying that no, there really weren’t many VOI VITTU, I MUST SEE THIS BAND bands, there was an overall balance of local acts that always put on a good show, and interesting foreign bands that I wouldn’t necessarily have picked but are worth checking out if you happen to be there. Nevertheless, the weekend was fulfilling, and a testament to why the same people come year after year.
Wednesday : FAITH NO MORE, CMX, WALTARI – Kaisaniemi Park
Although not an official Tuska gig, it was arranged in part by the same promoters, and occurred in that same lovely park. Tickets were quick to sell out, which happened well before they announced a second gig at Ruisrock. As a long time fan of FNM and Mr. Patton, this comeback was unexpected news, and I rejoiced in my relocation to Finland, as the U.S. was abandoned on this new and unlikely endeavor. I believe Mike Patton said that the only way he’d ever do a comeback gig or tour would be for a LOT of money. I suppose now he’s a wealthy motherfucker then. But after watching his performance, I can’t understand why he’d need his arm pulled to come back to this style of living and performing.
CMX and Waltari were both really good. Well, I suspect that they were. In reality, I was sitting in the grass outside the fenced area during their sets, because once you were in, you weren’t permitted re-entry, and I had just bought a 4-pack of light lonkero that I intended to drink with my non-ticket-carrying friends before and between sets. Quite the responsible journalist I am, right? But chances to see these two acts will come twentyfold, and FNM, perhaps, never again. And moments of drinking for hours in the park followed by a sudden onset of need-to-pee, with no reasonable spot to go without waiting for an hour to use a port-o-potty, hopefully WILL never happen again. But yes, both bands sounded good from behind the opaque fence’s perimeter, a perimeter that extended much further than Tuska’s usual, in that you couldn’t see inside from any of the taller hill slopes. It was expected, but a surprise, that so many showed up to experience the whole event in this half-assed way. Cheaper, for sure, in entertainment and in refreshments. But the sounds were muffled enough that, if you weren’t an expert on the songs, you wouldn’t recognize enough notes to discern them.
Not so long after CMX were done, and 15 minutes before Faith No More were scheduled to take the stage, some unusual music started playing from inside the festival area, and I soon recognized it to be the cover song, Reunited, that was the tour’s official intro song. Personally, as they had only agreed to do this bout of touring, and not to make new music, I didn’t feel so emotional or connected with their concept of reuniting, and while others may have felt a spark in their hearts during this song, I felt somehow betrayed. Abandoning the rest of my drinks, and running as near to the stage as I could (which wasn’t near at all), I took a look at my childhood idols, feeling simultaneously awestruck and bewildered. I didn’t remember them being this famous or liked prior to their disbanding, but seeing them looking like rockstars in a sold-out sea of onlookers, there was a disconnect. Mike Patton in his shiny silver suit, waving around a red walking cane, and the rest of the crew looking smug in their tailored suits… they didn’t have their young, fresh, naivety any longer, or a sparkle in their eye. Maybe a green sparkle.
I cannot, though, say that Mike Patton didn’t perform his money-making heart out, because there were times, for example during Cuckoo for Caca, that he’d channel so much of his might into his mic, that his blood vessels spilled loose across his face. He also performed some interesting twists, like singing Evidence in spanish, (telling us, ‘just think of Enrique Iglesias!’), or running around with a loudspeaker, or using vocal processors to emit the strangest of sound repetitions (remember Adult Themes for Voice?). He also picks up a stagelight at some point, shining it at himself and at the crowd, as though he were the only star of the show. There really was no interaction between members, nor movement from one side to another, and most of all, the guitarist was a statue. Roddy Bottum did some backing vox, like those of Be Aggressive, but was otherwise not so dynamic, except for taking a moment to grab his iPhone and take a picture of the crowd. Puffy looked surprisingly energetic, sweaty, and greying, which is an unusual combo, I’d say. Otherwise, there really was nothing besides Patton worth watching.
Some songs and moments that set this gig possibly apart from others include a minute or so of Patton singing Lady Gaga’s Poker Face, the first song of the second encore I Started a Joke, a cover on a B-side of a single, which I never expected to ever see live, ever (ever!!), and Patton asking us if we have ever been called Hell-stinky before. No, Mike, never. The set list was overwhelmingly long, although the gig was not nearly long enough, and it seemed that in many cases, they were playing radio edits of songs, King for a Day, being a definite example. This made it hard to sing along without getting lost, and also felt like a disappointment, even knowing that doing this was allowing them to play more, and more obscure, songs. At one point during Midlife Crisis, the song was paused to build a climax of applause, or some other will that Patton was trying to achieve from the crowd before jumping back into the song, and as those of us further from the stage were still waiting for the band to continue playing, you could hear hundreds or thousands of fans near the front singing the song without him, without musical accompaniment, without anything but clear delight, and this seemed to amuse Patton and the boys, who finally returned to the regularly scheduled program. Seeing thousands of screaming fans with their arms raised to the sky, Patton asks, “Are all of those hands attached to bodies?”
Overall, I was thrilled to have experienced a Faith No More live set once again, but it was the least intense of all the three occasions, and without a doubt the least intimate. I was hoping for just one song to make me cry, for the night’s final song to be something so emotional that some strings in my heart would snap, but with We Care a Lot as the finale, that was not achieved. Even less of closure was in Patton’s departing words of, “see you next time”. That’s it. (But what IS it?)
SET LIST:
- Intro – (Reunited – Peaches & Herb cover)
- From Outta Nowhere
- Land of Sunshine
- Caffeine
- Evidence (in Spanish)
- Chinese Arithmetic (intro – Lady Gaga cover – Poker Face)
- Surprise, You’re Dead!
- Last Cup of Sorrow
- Cuckoo for Caca
- Easy
- Ashes to Ashes
- Midlife Crisis
- Introduce Yourself
- King for a Day
- Gentle Art of Making Enemies
- Be Aggressive
- Epic
- Just a Man
_____ENCORE #1_____
- Stripsearch (Intro – Chariots of Fire)
- Digging the Grave
_____ENCORE #2_____
- I Started a Joke
- We Care a Lot
TUSKA WEEKEND – CONTINUED
