Fresh from Finland

Tampere is a great place to live with fall just around the corner. As the evenings cool down, the citys nightlife lightens up and the city hosts several urban festivals during the weekends in september and oktober. One of these urban festivals came knocking the previous weekend, as the Monsters of Pop – festival beckoned for the indie – population to move their feet from thursday to saturday. The program included contemporary as well as more cult – like domestic artists, as well as some visitors from the northern countries.

We at Fresh from Finland just had to have a peak and visited on saturday, the last day of festivities. The day kicked off with an unusual venua, the Niagara movie theater. The retrospective musik display, put together by the record label Fonal, presented at least a couple dozen music videos, as well as a couple well-entertaining and more irrational Fonal – themed videoclips. The more random category included a DIY guide to creating a Shogun Kunitoki – lamp. Although all the music videos are most likely on YouTube, the nearly full movie theater implied that the experience was uncomparable to squatting in front of you computer screen. An interesting observations: A remarkable amount of the music videos were shot in the woods. More simplistic music videos acquired more dimension and depth on a larger screen. I do hope that the next Monsters of Pop also features a screening experience in the Niagara – theater!

This was one of the music videos seen:

Monsters of Pop finished off at Klubi with three shows in a row. They were met with mixed emotion.

Name the Pet at klubi

I had grown to like Name the Pet in advance (most of all the following Sunshine) but they fell short of a memorable performance. The female vocalist dangling on stage reminded me in many ways of The Sounds’ Maja Ivarsson and the music represented replicable one in a dozen electro – pop. That being said, nothing was really bad, but the band will probably not be remember as anything unlike what we’ve heard before.

The New Wine at Klubi

Next up, the stage was taken by Norways the New Wine, that we’ve been going on about here before as well (ennenkin). Although last time I saw them, they weren’t alone up on the stage, but after the Monsters of Pop – show, it is easy to recognize what they brought to the mashup – show at Melt!. Watching the YouTube clips from the event in question brings back memories. The relaxed, easy going action was a surprisingly big reminder of the Whitest Boy Alive that played with them in Germany. Even though the more less known songs were hard to fully get into, I do wish The New Wine a very warm welcome back to Finland, as their debut album is finished and up on the shelves!

Op:l Bastards at klubi

The nights highlight, Op:l Bastards charmed those already smitten and angered those that had wandered on location for any other reason. The trio sat through most of the show and thus the only entertainment remained in the forms of clever remards. Those in the back probably didn’t even see a glimpse of the dudes. Once they did stand up, it was definitely a show. “Vilunku 3000″ spazzed on the stage with a towel under his cap and Kaukolampi made himself seen as almost a biblical figure. The crowd enjoyed the show quite camly, but the sudden spurs of joy were heard as Scorpius for example started playing. The show was a clever ending to a clever festival and even though eyelids weighed heavily at the later hours, missing the show was never an option.

The minx.. I mean links.
Name the Pet
New Wine Music
Opel Bastards