VPT2008 = Turku & Tampere Klubi Gigs @ 26-27.3 2008
(Note: you cannot see the links at least with IE6 for some strange reason, with Firefox it works as it should)
Huhhuijaa juu..! This time unfortunately our core-team was missing a member as Pera(kyla) was unable to attend. The trip was quite normal; luckily in Korpiklaani's case that means "much better that you could expect" that is...
This trip was also sweat, blood, sweat and beers. Hence the name VPT2008 = Veriset Pakarat Tour 2008 (=Bloody Buttocks Tour). I'll clarify the name later. I'm sorry for not describing the gig itself so much, but in my opinion you just cannot describe it; you have to experience it.
Turku first:
When we heard two gigs in Finland we knew that we have to correct our mistake we made at 2006 at Kouvola Gig (not going to Kotka and Lappeenranta gigs too) and go to both places. But as I said, sadly one of us had to skip the trip. Neither our wives could not arrange their work in the middle of the week so we had to go by two of us with Zaccy. But there is also positive point with that; there wont be any *khm*
drinking problem as boys with themselves rarely think that "you've had enough already.."
So we chose the normal way; train with the restaurant-wagon (there was only one of those to Turku??). After hard-day's work it is A GREAT feeling to drop all your worries, sit down with your
friend, grab a
beer and start thinking about the gig in a few hours... I mean, really! Restaurant wagon was quite full so we had to share our table with a nice fellow destined to hear our blatter. After one hour "warming-up" (and several no-no's for beer that we tried to offer) he asked himself "what does this Korpiklaani sound like as you seem to be so enthustiastics". Then we got him; you take this beer & earpiece now and listen. The quick set was Happy Little Boozer, Metsämies, Tulikokko and Journeyman. From the first minute he was smiling widely and happily and praising Jonne's singing and especially his voice. I believe he was quite close of coming to the gig, but then his wife called and sounded quite agitated so we dropped the subject. Anyway, a very warmly surprised fellow he was when leaving home.
It was 7PM as we arrived to Turku, so we grabbed a quick Kebab and change of clothes in hotel as we thought the gig would start at 9PM like in Tampere. We were in hurry so, we only changed Traditional "Happy Little Boozer" -shirts on and to road! was the plan. We did not even care that the bed seemed to be
combined one for two people... Zac had some arising stomach-problems which later became famous...
Anyway BeerBeer! Now! The Klubi was across the street so we thought to go a pub nearby as klubi was not open yet. It was
surprisingly hard. However soon we found a big place with only two people in addition to us... Times from Evijärvi came to my mind...
At eight PM the doors opened and we got in. Again we had a good luck with us and we met at the doors 2 very nice people;
Lucija and Saso. They were from Slovenia, so this time our nick-name "pitkänmatkalaiset" (=the guys from afar) felt a bit out-of-place...
Anyway after a few candy-drinks (Salmiakkikossu & Fisu) we could understand each other even better, except maybe Finnish competitors for Eurovision were quite hard to understand...
("Do Finns take anything seriously??")
Umm, maybe three things: Drinking, envying and self-pitying (now don't take me seriously
.
Sometimes it is a good thing to be quite big guy, as you are easilly recognized; this time it payed off as
Matson came in in and noted us at the bar and came to greet. It was a
major event for Saso (you could easilly tell it from his face
) to meet band member in person. The recent Moscow trip seemed to take its toll; the Matson was quite dry-mouthed and wanted to keep it that way too...
. When we moved to third floor where the stage was we
met Jonne too. Now here again materializes one of the great things about Korpiklaani: they usually wander around the place as normal guys so it so easy and natural to meet them and start to chat with them. Jonne gave me a hot tip (there are XXL-shirts again for sale at downstairs, THANK YOU again for that) and was so on-the-scope and
cunning like a fox there and saw the situation and gave Saso also a gift I'm sure he wont forget; a tour to back-stage.
All happens so fast so in no time the gig began with
Wooden Pints! In my (selfish) opinion there was just great amount of people; you can easilly
humpata there without any pushing but it still looks
crowded. Maybe the bar would have wanted more, but we loved it. Well then we did humppa.
A lot. in small
circle and
without. As Zaccy had taken several strenght-potions he even helped the smaller ones to see better by lifting with shoulders. One especially memorable moment was when Jonne put his guitar away and took the
hand-drum (sorry for raping the name of the instruments, but.. but.. I'm at the IT business) and played
Kipumylly and Keep on Galloping with it!
When I was out of breath for humping and shouting and Zac was totally "hapoilla" (legs we full of lactic acid for that lifting and humping) happened the most astonishing courtesy (or how can you say it) from Jonne; they invited US into
stage!!! It was time for
Happy Little Boozer! As Jonne expected to see all three of us, there was a short confusion at the beginning, but I believe just two of us
were enough for the
crowd Luckily the stage could hold our additional quarter-ton weight too and we did not manage to ruin the whole show... At least we
tried to rock like never before as the situation was... ummm... like never before
When the song was about in half-way Zaccy whispered "
my feets are killing me, I cant take it anymore", I had to encourage him: "kesken ei lähdetä PERKELE!" (not untill its over, PERKELE!" Perkele is always the great word; it gives you strenght to endure almost anything when you say it with feeling!
Now I must say it: Thank you again Korpiklaani! I sure it will be one of the most memorable moments in my life to be in the stage with you!!! I'm sure I can say it for Zaccy too!
Even so, we were so happy to get off the stage after that as we were so exhausted that we would have embarrased the whole band with our wooden legs (at the moment)... Time to sit down. To
sweat. I missed the next song completely when catching the breath. I admire how excellent condition the boys have as they rock through the gig! Hats off for you again. Thet it was time for Hunting song, which ended the gig. Of course Jonne introduced all the band-mamber to the crowd, which is always very nice idea!
After having a relaxing beer we decided that this is it; we planned to listen Metsatöll too, but we also knew that anything more would spoil the perfect feeling we had and we with
back to Fan shop to grab our new shirts and to chat a little with Anna (Jonne's wife) who runs it. While there we had a chance to thank directly Jonne too as he came there a bit later.
Time for cool-down and food! We tried have beers in the nearby pub, but our
tireness and Zaccy's hiccup was so bad we even had to skip half of the pint (?!?!) and go to get some food. As we were in Turku we decided to go and have local food = Hesburger
The hiccup was over by then and we went straight into hotel-room. Parisänky (coupled-bed? double-bed?) did not matter any more. Sleep... Now... I wonder if any bed have ever felt as sweet as that evening.
I BIG thanks for Lucija for taking pictures, sharing them, and permitting me to use them in this story!
To be continued with Tampere gig in a few days.