lundi 13 Oct 2008, 8h38m
Yes, I attended a Dynasty Tour event in Jyväskylä, Finland. It was a typical rainy Thursday, October 9th, year 2008 which was supposed to be my lucky year but which actually hasn’t been the happiest time of my life… This Dynasty Tour show was my first gig this year. I’ve been having bad luck. The confirmation camp and my mother spoiled the opportunity to see 30 Seconds to Mars live when they finally came to this little forgotten land and I didn’t even have the chance to see Kill Hannah. Or In Flames, which annoyed me the most even though I’m not really a big fan of them.
Anyway, my mother decided to be fair and replaced me all those lost concerts. She bought me two tickets for the Dynasty Tour show in our neighbouring town, Jyväskylä. Oh how happy I was due to that nice little surprise… I had seen Mariko live once with Kwan, Von Hertzen Brothers was totally new name for me and and The Rasmus… well, I attended their gig three years ago in that same town, on that same stage, even in the same month, and I can tell you that I was a frigging huge fan when I was younger. I discovered them when I was still in kindergarten and since then, I have been a loyal supporter. But after that wonderful gig experience my enthusiasm kind of vanished. It wasn’t because of their music… it was… well I don’t really know what happened. Something.
Now I couldn’t throw away the opportunity to see my ex-favourite band live again. They had just released their seventh record, Black Roses, and it would have been very idiotic to miss the other artists, too. I asked my friend Maria to go with me, and she consented. We had a very good time together, as usual, and the show was… well, the show was great, as usual when there’s Rasmus around. I had really fallen in love with their new album and after that night, I learnt to like it even more. If it’s possible. I never consider their sixth output Hide from the Sun musically bad, but Black Roses was still a nice return.
We went waiting for the doors to open at five o’clock. There were slightly over twenty or thirty people standing in a queue ahead of us. Some guys had slept in their sleeping bags and they had lots of stuff with them. Someone was running all the time from Paviljonki to somewhere and then back again, and some VIP people with backstage passes were let inside while the ordinary hillbillies (we) were shivering in the cold sprinkle. We guessed that those runners were picking up some food or other important items. The doors were opened fifteen minutes late and by that, the queue had grown pretty much.
Maria and I tried to get straight to the concert hall but we were stopped by the guards who stood at the entrance–they wanted Maria to leave her overcoat to the cloakroom. It took its time since everyone had gone right away to deliver their things (fortunately I had dashed my coat into my bag), and as a result, we were standing in the second row which was absolutely the most obnoxious place to be in ‘cause we had to decide whether we wanted to be on a stand that was hardly broad enough for the front row people or on the “real” floor. We decided to try to keep ourselves on the stand even though we were being hit by elbows all the time. And those Rasmus fans in front of us… well, they weren’t my favourites, even though one of them did have a very nice Black Roses shirt.
Little by little the hall filled. We were forced to wait more than an hour even though the concert should have started at seven o’clock. We tried to spend our time, we sat and complained about how difficult it was to go and buy some liquorice when there were only two of us, and naturally both of us couldn’t leave at the same time ‘cause someone was needed to push the hostile intruders away which was a challenging task for one person. Finally we got a pouch of apple liquorices and that made the waiting a little more bearable. Well, we almost ate them all before the first performer…
Mariko’s show started with sickening bright pink letters that blinded the whole audience and announced very clearly whose turn it was to take over the empty stage. Before the band members were seen, they turned some kind of a weird tape on. Then the players came and we died because of boredom. I mean… no, I’m not criticising anyone who likes Mariko, remember that I was a fan of Kwan during Dynasty, but I just don’t like her music or appearance. I do understand if someone does.
The bass player was in front of us and most of the time I just observed his fingers plucking. Of course I also clapped with the others, I cannot understand people who just stand like they are made of stone when they listen to music… even if they don’t like the band. I recognised only two songs, Unstoppable and the last one they played, Time Has Come. It seems to be her biggest hit here in Finland so far. And I’ve got to admit that it made me move a bit… pretty catchy song. Though I’d still rather stick to power metal!
So, Mariko wished us a good night and left the stage. The spotlights went off and they turned on some easy-listening music again. Luckily the crowd became a bit thinner so Maria and I could sit down. I took off my trustworthy Adidas shoes of eighties and decided to be without them for the rest of the concert. It was Von Hertzen Brothers’ turn next but they really let us wait… when their instruments and other things eventually were in order, the music stopped and the yellow band logo was put on a deep cyan background. Some kind of an intro started and the band members got on the stage one at a time (one of the brothers was in front of us, he sang and played keyboards and bass though it looked like he was playing guitar). The singer raised his hands in the air and I couldn’t help doing the same. The audience was much more awake this time, but the fans were pretty weird people–they were swaying to the music and doing some strange marks with their fingers. They seemed to completely live in their own world.
What did I know about the band when they started to play? Nothing. My brother (Quuquu) had only told me that they suck, but afterwards he revealed that he hadn’t heard a song by them. How typical. Well, I soon built my own impression… first of all, they really seemed to know how to take over the audience. The singer was a charismatic guy, he smiled a lot and paid regard to us and was pleasant to look at. Their playing was more energetic than Mariko’s or Rasmus’, they just didn’t talk so much. And I… I fell in love with their music immediately! They played progressive rock, and that really hadn’t even occurred to my me before the gig… how surprising. Their songs were long and varying in a good way and very difficult to separate from each other. They also did some interesting things with guitar. I don’t know the songs by name… only the last one, it was called The Willing Victim like they said. I need to get their album.
The brothers left the stage together with the drummer and the keyboardist whose dreads were long as hell and there was more dying waiting in our schedule… we sat down again and ate the final liquorice meanwhile Rasmus’ means and instruments were being set up, and listened to two mothers (don’t ask me how I knew they were both mothers–they just sounded like they had got to know each other in a maternity or a place like that) who were horrified about the backs of the roadies and their state. I laid my bag down on my shoes and stood on the structure to see better over the front row people’s heads and to get a little softer base under my feet. It was really needed…
After a while, people tried to get The Rasmus on stage and started to shout and clap their hands, and I was really surprised when the lightning suddenly turned into violet and the band came and started their show with the first single from Black Roses, Livin' in a World Without You. I was very, very happy to hear that song first. I mean… Mariko started with some never heard stuff, ended with her biggest hit, and it’s… well, just think about it and you will find out what I mean. Rasmus didn’t apologise for its existence, they played a song that had been hammering in people’s head at least for the three last weeks and that’s all there is to it.
Those above-mentioned mothers were very confused when Rasmus mesmerised their audience. And they were not the only ones. For the first time (now this is an important thing) I felt like I belonged to something bigger. I didn’t have that kind of impressions when I queued outside and saw all those true fans ahead of me… I didn’t have that feeling when I first met the other future confirmation leaders earlier this autumn. But I had it when I saw my ex-favourite band live, I had it rushing in my ears and beating in my heart when I yelled as loudly as I could and jumped with the others at the same time. I was able to remember all the lyrics word for word and I was just so happy when I saw Pauli playing his Dynasty guitar in front of me.
Does it happen sometimes? Yeah, it does. I was happy without a proper reason. And I was perfectly fine with that, so actually we could go on now before I come up with some other stupid ideas not related to our topic.
Okay… The Rasmus. It was good to see the old faces again. Eero and Lauri both spoke quite much, Lauri said he had a lot of lovely memories from Jyväskylä. They played Ten Black Roses, Ghost of Love, Justify and Your Forgiveness from their new record and it was great to hear them all. The beginning of Justify sounded somehow weird though… but then it turned into an unforgettable live song. I was glad to hear Chill and F-F-F-Falling from Into, they lightened the atmosphere conveniently. And when Lauri took his acoustic guitar, it was plain for all of us what we were going to hear next… Sail Away. They also performed No Fear from the album Hide from the Sun. First Day of My Life was the only song they played from Dead Letters, along with In the Shadows that was performed at the end of the show.
People really got crazy. I almost had to fight to stay in my contemporary place, and unfortunately Maria was dropped into the third row. Breathing was hard and I particularly had to focus on jumping in order to avoid stepping on others’ feet. Before In the Shadows I thought I was going to give up the ghost… man, it was great.
In the middle of the set, someone from the audience shouted that she wanted to hear Funky Jam from their debut album, Peep. The band obeyed and played some quick parts of it along with Playboys (from their second album with the same title) and Ghostbusters that was drowned by people’s voices. Lauri said that Jyväskylä did a shouting-record at it… yeah, I guess we rocked quite well. I’m still from Äänekoski, but it’s like less than forty kilometres away, so… anyway, I loved the fact that they also performed us Liquid which is an old song, too.
Like I said, I remember that the show ended with In the Shadows, but I’m not sure about that. However, we shouted the band back and they sang us Rakkauslaulu. The bassist Eero played the drums and Lauri played bass while Pauli stayed with his guitar and the drummer Aki was somewhere out of sight. The very last song they performed as an encore was Immortal from the album Hide from the Sun, and for me, that was the best performance ever. Immortal is a powerful, unique song which perfectly set a full stop for that memorable night.
The Rasmus left the stage once and for all and Radiohead’s lovely song No Surprises was turned on. The crowd started to lounge across the hall. I gathered my things and dragged behind without shoes, singing “No alarms and no surprises…” My socks were dirty, there was a cut on my lower lip, my feet were sore and my back was aching and I couldn’t say a word and I was also very thirsty since I had drunk like two glasses of water during the whole day, but I was happy, happy after all. There we stood, outside in the pouring rain, and we were happy.
And now I’m more than happy to end this too long and disoriented review. I wrote it last night in the wee hours so don’t blame me for its oddity…
Thank you for reading, I appreciate it! o/