TUSKA 2009 – Pt.3: Friday – There’s a Beerbellied Troll on the Stage!
Feels good to be back at Tuska. It’s finally pleasantly warm (which means the Finns are out here suffering, blistering, and melting), the seagulls are swarming, and the weekend is full of promise. First objective of the day is to check out the merch stand. Last year’s bright pink Tuska band line-up shirts were sold out before I had gotten to them, along with the “Saatanaako tuijotat?” pink underpants. This year, the lovely blue backgrounded metal penguin seemed even cooler, and I hoped to fuck that they would make a shirt of this. Well, naturally, they did, but it was a small central logo on a black shirt, and I was dreaming of a shirt in that blue color. Yeah, fashion freak I am. But, hallelujah, they had the underpants back again! Woohoo! Successful day already. What follows is all just excess.
Gojira : (Main Stage) Or, as you’d hear the Finns chanting their name early this Friday afternoon, Goh-Yee-Rah! Being one of those bands that tours with In Flames, Killswitch Engage, or most recently Metallica, I didn’t have high hopes for a band that shares their company. I can be wrong sometimes. Their songs were not extraneous, as I would have expected, but offered a sound that they own; a technical, vocal varying, tight mechanical rhythm that was sometimes strangely danceable, though it was FAR too early and most of us sober. A later robotty song reminded dramatically of Cynic, but when is that ever a bad thing? Also included in their performance hour was nearly 20 minutes of instrumental machinery, then a drum solo. This is where it started becoming less exciting, and an hour seeming too long. However, perhaps the lamest feature of this set was the bad speeches. “We came a long way to get here. We had to FLY here! So we wanna see you move!” Aww, you had to fly? I’d have been more impressed if you’d swam across the Baltic. Maybe next time.
All That Remains : (Main Stage) I thought this band had just played at Nosturi the previous Tuesday. What? Oh… that was the OTHER “all” band, All Shall Perish. Well, it all sucks anyway, so whatever. But hey, the singer of the band Phil Labonte dedicated a song to me and all the other girls there because, as he says, “pussy is great! And it’s delicious!”. Classy guy, wonder how the bassist Jeanne feels hearing that kinda bullshit. I just don’t feel that metalcore has any place at a genuine metal fest. This was the reason I escaped the U.S. in the first place, but Finns seem to have a mini-obsession with American metal in all its shapes and colors. They were performing well enough, just the music was irritating.
Callisto : (Sue Stage) This band began with heavier roots, as I understand, but they were perhaps the band farthest removed from metal representing at Tuska. Sharing similarities, or at least fans, with Cult of Luna, old Neurosis, and even Anathema, the sound was emotional without being emo. The curly-locked singer, as well, reminded of Anathema’s Vinnie, though with half of the flare or unadulterated passion. This singer handled all the clean vocals, and their previous vocalist, who is their present-day guitarist, added in some needed growls from their older songs. Besides this, however, the set lacked dynamics, as there were no crushing moments to excite or incite. Callisto was not a band to begin a long day with, but to wither it away slowly at the end, as in a jatkoklubi performance. It also begged for an intimate club stage, as intimate as possible that could still fit seven dudes on one stage. I’ll give them props though, for their one song title I heard them announce. “Drying Mouths in a Gasping Land”. I think I need a beer.
Neurosis : (Main Stage) Appropriately, Callisto was followed by one of their likely influences, Neurosis. These Americans had gathered quite a big draw to the main stage, and were surely a reason for Friday’s sizeable ticket sales, but what they offered in exchange for the money spent, was a stripped-down, no lights, no smoke, no frills set. They barely moved. The music was slowwww. They looked like the same guys I’d seen playing over a decade ago, maybe even wearing the same jerseys, only a bit chubbier, and less teeth. Not to mention that last time they had had a trippy video projection possibly synchronized with their music playing behind them that you could focus your attention on instead of the NOTHING that was happening otherwise. This time, just boredom and noise, mixed in with a few interesting keyboard sounds. An hour of this? No… time to sit on the grassy hills behind the Sue stage and drink the suffering away. Did I mention this was a band I was particularly looking forward to seeing? Hence, the disappointment.
Black Dahlia Murder : (Inferno Stage) Haven’t we just seen these guys at FME only four months ago? The organization running both Tuska and FME seems to have struck some deals with certain bands, maybe taking them to both festivals as a package deal or something, or else they just enjoy banal redundancy, or aren’t aware of any other bands. Black Dahlia belonged to this category, and as such, I didn’t feel the need to watch for long. Not everyone was present at FME though, of course, and the Inferno tent was overflowing with bodies. Arriving late, you couldn’t get very near the stage, or even see the members from afar. You could see a fairly nice circle pit, however. Guess that speaks louder than the members’ faces.
Ensiferum : (Sue Stage) Playing at the same slot as Black Dahlia, and finishing up the Sue Stage for the evening, were these folk metal favorites. These guys are always energetic and exciting to watch, moreso the massive bass -slinging Sami Hinkka and face-making Marcus Toivonen, than cool-looking but stationary vocalist Petri Lindroos. The band sounded rich from the photo pit, but rather shitty and muffled from farther away, particularly from the grassy knoll. Still, always a reliably good band, just a bit common in comparison to some of this year’s foreign offerings.
Immortal : (Main Stage) BANG! A quick blast of pyro warms the air as Abbath jumps to the stage from out of nowhere in his evil troll stance. “Good evening, ladies and motherfuckers!” he proclaims, as I’m still attempting to catch my breath from the shocking pyro burst exploding a meter away from my camera. Fuck me, greatest intro ever! This three-piece of Norwegian black metal took to the immense stage and OWNED it, with Abbath and bassist Apollyon always at the edge of the stage, and leaping past each other to get to another side of the stage and make their best evil faces at a different section of the crowd. Abbath is such a funny metal persona, and he had some ridiculously laughable moves, even some unlikely hip-swinging. As the night’s last band playing already at 8:30, with a full Finnish summer sun blaring, Abbath repeats his frost-covered mantra “Fuck the sun!”. Also among his brilliant statements was “Suomi Finland Perkele”, a phrase that has always sounded a little bit mixed-up to me. Immortal definitely took ownership of the night and played straight until the festival’s sound-regulation limit at 10pm. No, it still wasn’t dark yet.
JATKOKLUBIT
Choices for tonight were as follows.
- TAVASTIA – Riverside
- NOSTURI – Enochian Crescent, Throes of Dawn, Kilt
- VIRGIN OIL – Turmion Kätilöt, Black Light Discipline, Fear of Domination
- ON THE ROCKS – Kamala, Souldump (unofficial)
- DANTE’S HIGHLIGHT – Force Majeure, Axegressor (unofficial)
While some of these other gigs would have been inviting as well, it’s rather rare that Throes of Dawn plays gigs nowadays, so there was really no other choice for me. Based on my experiences from the aftergigs last year, I was sure that EVERY official gig would be totally sold out, and that tickets should be bought in advance to prevent this. Because so many metal people are being released from Tuska at the same time, are mostly (or ridiculously) drunk, and need somewhere to go, it made sense that there’d be lines at each club’s front doors. Not the case, today.
Throes of Dawn: It was disappointing seeing such an empty front area (where you may not have drinks), but the bar was not very crowded either. We arrived just as Throes of Dawn were about to begin (preferring to drink our own alcohol at the harbor’s edge instead of beginning to pay for €5 drinks during Kilt‘s set), and, like sheep, also spent the entire set on the booze-serving side. Throes had introduced some new, unreleased songs both at the beginning and end of their too-short set, and they sounded really promising. The rest of the songs were from their second and third albums, and were at once mesmerizing and full of heartwarming despair. I would have preferred, however, if they had had a live keyboard player.
Enochian Crescent: The crowd had grown by the time they approached the stage, but still, definitely, disappointing. They had also played an aftergig for last year’s Tuska, also at Nosturi, opening for Horna, and on that occasion the demand for tickets had highly overwhelmed the club’s size. However, since Enochian hit the stage at such a late hour (some time after 1am), I had to choose between either watching the gig, or catching the last bus home. Having seen this band several times within the last year, my choice was not to have to order a taxi on this busy night, and get some sleep to survive tomorrow’s thrash experience! But damn… I didn’t get to see any feathers, or scissor-fleshslicing, or animal organs mingling with the crowd. Shame.
