Kuukauden kuvat // Pictures of the Month

From now on Pictures of the Month posts will have some sort of theme we base our photo picks on since we have kinda done that by accident a few times already, ha! This time it's all about longing for some certain place in the world as we both suffer from constant travel fever. Pack your bags and join the ride to Pieksämäki and London!

Sir Mr' Taf @ Poleeni, Pieksämäki 26.5.2007

Pieksämäki. Monille vain asemakaupunki, jossa hypätään junasta toiseen, mulle paljon enemmän. Kulttuurikeskus Poleeni & paikallinen artisti Sir Mr' Taf, siinä on erittäin kova PMK-combo joka tulisi vähintäänkin lisätä yleistietouteen tästä Etelä-Savon maakunnan kaupungista. Tämä (jälleen) kovin laadukas kuva on napsaistu Riemu-Festivaaleilta, jolloin Poleenin salissa ja aulassa kuultiin kahden päivän aikana yhteensä 17 eri musiikkiesitystä - kolmetoista niistä tänä päätöspäivänä. Tämä keikka löytyy youtubesta ja hyvä niin sillä olin ihan täysin unohtanut jo keikan välissä tapahtuvat kilpailut, joista esim videota kuvannut voitti maljakon! Osa 1 / osa 2. Enemmän haluan hehkuttaa kuitenkin keikalta ostamaani HUOM SIGNEERATTUA  Nuotiolla CD:tä ja tuota aivan hemmetin nerokasta raksi ruutuun systeemiä riippuen siitä miten levy päätyi omiin hyppysiin. Ja vielä päivämääräkin mukana, so cool! Jos multa kysytään niin nämä ruudut saisi levitä kaikkien levyjen kansitaiteisiin. Tarea aina sillon tällöin bongailee Pieksämäen katukuvassa, meibi taas next time ja toivottavasti suht piakkoin! -kilu ✌

Nightwish @ O2 Brixton Academy, London UK 11.03.2009

London, one of my favorite places on Earth spiced by one of my favorite bands. The gig was a part of Dark Passion Play World Tour and the grande finale of my five-day solo trip to London. I had the worst flu ever and spent the majority of the day sleeping in my hotel room and eating unhealthy but oh so delish meal deals. When I arrived to the Academy I was greeted by the longest queue I had ever seen in my life, but somehow I managed to get a really good spot from the third row. I really can't remember any specific details about the show, but live music often makes you forget unpleasant things. I was completely unaware of my sick and snotty state for an hour and a half, because I was so immersed in the awesomess in front of me.

- juoksepoistytto

Previous Kuukauden kuvat / Pictures of the Month posts:
04/2016 Poison The Well x Thursday + Gerard Way

03/2016 Lady Gaga + Venom

02/2016 Strike Anywhere + HIM

01/2016 Katy Perry + H.E.A.T.

12/2015 Negative + Agnostic Front

YYKAAHOOVEE

Kuukauden kuvat // Pictures of the Month

Poison The Well & Thursday @ Great Hall, Cardiff, UK 22.11.2009

Cardiff was the last show on Rise Against's 2009 tour so their tourmates Thursday and Poison the Well (+crew) did a lil' dance session during Dancing For Rain's piano intro while Rise Against was off stage. Let me show you a short clip:

This has to be my one of my all time fave headliner+support band combos I've been fortunate enough to witness myself. What also made the night extra special was when PTW dedicated Prematurito El Baby "To the two ladies up front"  = me and my friend. We had been fangirling about the mentioned tune after their previous gig in London, so that was a nice surprise before going mental to the song. People next to us, who didn't really care for the supports, called us crazy. I'll always take crazy as a compliment when it comes to live music shizzle. As far as I'm aware this was actually Poison The Well's last gig before the 2010 announced hiatus. Now they are back in business and playing handful of shows in June-July after the two 2015 re-union shows. Here's hoping something happens in Europe too. -kilu ✌

Gerard Way @ The Circus, Helsinki 5.2.2015

MCR no longer exists, but you can never take that band out of my system. I wasn't really all that blown away by Gerard's first solo album Hesitant Alien, but I felt an odd sense of responsibility towards this gig and the guy. Showing up was the only option and in the end I was glad that I went.

Firstly, I got to catch a glimpse of one of the coolest roadies in the business and experience some hardcore nostalgia. Secondly, the songs sounded a million times better live. There's a strange buzzing noise going on when you listen to the album and it kinda rubs me the wrong way, so it was nice to listen to the songs with "pure" melodies and without distractions. Thirdly, I have never seen Gerard so confident and I was so happy to see that he seemed to have a really good fucking time. He was very relaxed and chatted with the crowd a lot, something you hardly ever saw with MCR. Even though many people were wearing MCR shirts and whatnot, no one made any stupid remarks about it or demanded to hear their songs. Everyone seemed to be genuinely excited about G's solo stuff which warmed my little black heart.

- juoksepoistytto

Previous Kuukauden kuvat / Pictures of the Month posts:

03/2016 Lady Gaga + Venom

02/2016 Strike Anywhere + HIM

01/2016 Katy Perry + H.E.A.T.

12/2015 Negative + Agnostic Front

YYKAAHOOVEE

Kuukauden kuvat // Pictures of the Month

Strike Anywhere @ Gasometer, Wien, Austria 5.2.2009

as seen on yykaahoovee's banner!
setlist from Leipzig

Strike Anywhere - and automatically the first couple of lines of Prisoner Echoes's chorus start ringing in my head. The band is currently cooking up some euro-action happening late July early August. This shot is from when Strike Anywhere supported Rise Against back in Feb 2009 and I was lucky enough to catch them five times in five days on that tour. Wien was the first on that whole European run and I remember a Labrador retriever making a short visit on the stage before the whole show started haha. Strike Anywhere is a fun band to see live thanks to the energy they bring and the amount of great songs they are able to put their setlist together from - it's hard to be disappointed really. Hope to catch them again some fine day!

- kilu

HIM @ Õllesummer festival, Tallinn, Estonia 15.7.2010

If I'm not completely mistaken, this was HIM's first ever gig in Estonia which is quite strange because Estonia is right next to Finland. Well anyway, it's one of the best or maybe even the best festival gig I've ever seen by them, and I've seen a few. It was a part of the Screamworks: Love In Theory And Practice tour and the set included lots of songs from the album, of course. It's one of my favorite HIM records even if it never took off very well compared to their other albums.
This picture is an example of pure luck I sometimes have while photographing in concerts. I've done nothing but resize it, otherwise it's completely au naturel, colors, shadows and all. I wish I had these kind of accidental quality magic moments more often, heh.

- juoksepoistytto

Kuukauden kuvat // Pictures of the Month

It's that time of the month again and this time in English! We seem to be having a bit of a, well, Swedish theme going on...

Katy Perry @ Nalen, Stockholm, Sweden 22.2.2009

After coincidentally watching a random band playing Katy Perry cover the other night in Dublin, en route to home I teamed up with juoksepoistytto in Stockholm for some Kity Purry action. Seeing now where Katy Perry plays these days, including her Finland debut just last year at the sold out 13,000 capacity Hartwall Arena, it's quite crazy we got to witness her in a utsolgt club with 598 other people.
A giant maneki-neko cat and giant inflatable strawberries were used as stage props so one would without a doubt know they are in for a pop concert. But she rocked! I really dig Perry's voice and she does know how to sing. During the set you'd catch her playing guitar along with the band, switching to acoustic for some of the songs and then finally just with the mic going around engaging with and surprisingly even amongst the crowd. I'd guess it was during the encore when miss Perry herself handled a giant inflatable lipstick which she poked the crowd with or something. Her quirky lyrics translate well into the music she makes, but the mid set speeches of similar lines felt a bit too childish, even when the crowd was quite young that evening. Last year we toyed around attending that said Hartwall Arena gig to get the total opposite experience of this night in Stockholm. Buuut after coming to a conclusion how we don't even know Perry's new material or listen to her much anyway -and most importantly when just alone the ticket money could get us to see many local faves, had to give it a pass this time. Never say never though...

-kilu

H.E.A.T. (SWE) @ South Park Festival, Tampere 7.6.2014

The musical genre this festival represents has never really been my cup of tea, but this time Reckless Love was in the lineup and my friend also got us free tickets. Both of us had some other engagements later that evening so we thought we would just briefly pop in, watch RL and get out. However, we still had some spare time after RL so we decided to give "that next band whatever they were called" a chance and I'm so glad we did. Pardon my Swedish, but jävla helvete!! Seriously.
I have never before been so instantly and almost violently charmed by a band whose whole existence was a complete mystery to me until they hit the stage. All of the songs had awesome catchy melodies and their performance was so electrifying. We couldn't stop dancing and jumping around despite the fact that we naturally didn't know any of the songs, hah. I will always remember this gig as one of the most powerful live music experiences of my life, it was pure love from the start.

- juoksepoistytto