Hässäkkä-päivät warm up: Gulag Beach in Helsinki & Tampere

I'm a big fan of sideshows since free weekends during summertime are a very rare treat meaning I miss out on most of the festival action. Hässäkkä-päivät in Oulu had a sick line up and I got to enjoy some of that before and after the main event. Here's some pre-Hässäkkä action!

Gulag Beach @ Lepakkomies, Helsinki 6.7. & Vastavirta, Tampere 7.7.2016

First up in Lepis was Blossom Hill who I hadn't listened before at all and only band in this text who didn't also play at Hässäkkä-päivät. From the first notes it became clear their sound was way too pop to me and my friend's liking - who I literally had to drag by arm to get her to come a bit more closer to the stage.

Majority of the crowd were friends of the band it seemed, so the kicks I didn't get from the music I got them from noticing other people enjoying their time by singing and jamming along. The band was quite chatty and shared some nostalgic stories that hit the mark with their audience. Last three songs Off The Rails, You & something I can't figure from the setlist were the best of the bunch but that being said, it's a firm but a polite no thank you to a new serving of more Blossom Hill tunes. 

Then moving onto Tampere. Raivoraittius was the first band of the bill but since I'm not the best at getting going I arrived there when they finished the last one of the set. Thanks to people clapping their hands I did get to hear their encore. Next time if Raivoraittius starts the night I'll try a bit harder to put my pants on quicker.

Bad Jesus Experience

Sometimes band's name might develop a certain image in one's mind of what the band is like. I have always for some reason imagined Bad Jesus Experience being a hippie prog group. "We are Bad Jesus Experience and we play hardcore punk" that became clear and boy was I happy. I took a video at a random point of the set of what must be one of their shortest songs and in thirty and so seconds it capsulizes what the core of the band's set was about.

Then there was the song which started more slow paced, singer exaggeratedly breathing into the mic before bursting into fast paced punk the band had been delivering in your face the whole time. Songs like mentioned bring clear diversity to the set and are always welcome when seeing any band no matter the genre. With that, Bad Jesus Experience, you got my attention. Just when a moment of awkward (well not really) silence tried to creep upon during a short tuning pause, a member of the crowd asked how the bass player's holiday went and apparently bathroom pipes got cleaned up so I was not totally wrong on the progressive part haha.

Thanks to that only sunny day in the forecast, Helsinki called a day earlier than I had originally planned. Lucky me, on a Wednesday night a punk rock band from Berlin happened to play in Lepakkomies. North Korea is not the most common subject you'd expect to hear four Europeans to write about so based on that information alone Gulag Beach seemed interesting enough.

They had a quite sharp and clear sound -you could actually make something out of the lyrics without knowing them beforehand. Now that I've spent some quality time on their bandcamp, which I urge you to do so too, Gulag Beach definitely stepped up a notch at the live setting. For example the opening track of their most recent release Favela Blues, 4th on the set, Central Torture Agency and its bang-a-dang-a-dang drumming parts got me and my friend exchanging looks that indicated fuck yeaah accompanied with dork smiles. 

My smile stayed on as I was glad I'd get to hear it all over again in Tampere. Same set and the high level of catchiness in their songs was evident as now I could even hum along a tad bit especially to my favourite On the Run and to Can't Stand K-Pop that had a less serious approach to the subject than rest of their songs. In Helsinki the band shed some light on the back stories for some of the songs whilst Tampere got a more straight up let's just play treatment.

I can only think of one common downside for both of the shows, the lack of people attending. Midweek slots are rough to begin with but add to that final stages of UEFA Euro (blahblah) clearly had to make it worse. What a shame as the band was so tight and first time over in Finland. In Tampere things were a bit better and those who watched the gig were clearly more interested than in Helsinki resulting in one more song after the set closer North Korean Republic. Singer of the band also asked if anyone knew any Matti Nykänen stories to please share them with him so I hope he heard some of those and that the whole band enjoyed their time in Suomenlinna on Wednesday (me&my friend: those guys must be the band who plays tonight, gotta check on google..yup that's them!). -kilu ✌ //YYKAAHOOVEE//

Thank you it was (mostly) a pleasure:

Gulag Beach

Bad Jesus Experience

Blossom Hill

+ thx to everyone involved making the gigs happen and of course to those who bought a ticket, how fucking awesome are we for supporting live music = super awesome.

 Blow Up Boom Boom  @ Lepis (thx pertsa for filming)

North Korean Republic @ Lepis

On the Run @ Vastis